The other day, my two-year-old was running, missed a step, and biffed it. He just had a skinned knee, but based on his screams, you would have thought his life was ending. So I scooped him up, asked him if he wanted to sit in my lap, and he nodded his head through his tears. So we sat in a chair and the crying stopped, and he just sat with me. He didn’t need a bandaid. He didn’t need to be shown why he fell. He didn’t need anything to be fixed. He just needed his dad. 

As we get older, the pains we experience don’t stay as small as skinned knees, though. We experience death of loved ones, loss of jobs, financial hardships, betrayal of friends…and the list could go on and on. And the answers we need to the pain we feel seem a lot more complex than a few simple cuddles. 

But what if what we need in our pain isn’t that far off from what my two-year-old needed? 

In the book of Job, we see Job—a righteous man—go from having everything to nothing but a nagging wife and some bad friends. Throughout the book, Job is questioning God, wondering why all of this would happen to him. He didn’t see any reason in his life for such pain and suffering to come onto him. But when we get to the end of this book, we see God answer Job. And He doesn’t answer his questions. He doesn’t give reason to the pain and suffering and loss that Job had experienced. Instead, God helps Job lift his eyes to see the bigness of God. I love how Job responds: 

I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes. (Job‬ ‭42‬:‭5‬-‭6‬)

After having his eyes lifted to more rightly see God, he repents of his attitude towards his pain. 

I don’t know what kind of pain you’re dealing with. Maybe it’s…

The loss of a parent. 

The loss of a child. 

Financial hardship. 

A loved one hardening their heart to the truth of the gospel. 

Strife in your marriage. 

Or, maybe it’s something else entirely.

But no matter what it is, there is something we need in the midst of it. It’s not answers. It’s not physical help. It’s not the pain getting taken away. Now don’t hear what I’m not saying; seek medical help when you need to. Get answers when you can. But don’t find yourself placing your hope in those things. Because those things aren’t ultimate. 

What we really need, more than anything else, is a lifting of our eyes. 

We need to behold the greatness of our God. We need to not just hear about this God who created all things, is in control of all things, and sustains all things. We need to get our eyes off our pain and onto our God. We need to have our spiritual eyes lifted to see Him and experience Him. Just like my two-year-old, we don’t need the pain fixed. We need to have the childlike faith that doesn’t need answers but that needs only our Father. We need to see and experience our Father who is in control of all things and who cares for us.