So you had been cut off from them your whole impoverished life. The entire time you thought you were an orphan. You did what you had to do to survive, sometimes committing violent crimes. Everyone in your country had done the same. Only recently did you discover the truth of your birth, when a messenger delivered documents and proofs that you were a blood relative of this great family. Now they desperately want you back, even with full knowledge of the guilt you bear, but you're angry. Why did they wait so long to find you? Would they really want you if they knew everything you had done? How could you ever fit in?
There are a lot of secret reports from the battlefront, and the carnage is terrible. Millions of soldiers on both sides are involved, but your country is doomed, sooner or later. Many of the dead soldiers you knew, and some you grew up with. When, and if, your compatriots find out you're actually a blood-member of the U.S. side, they will accuse you of spying and hang you.
The messenger prevailed and returned a message to the family that your sense of hurt and anger was the only reason for delay.
A few days later another stealthy messenger came through the lines and handed you one last note from the Pater Familias; the head of the family. It reads, "I know your hurt and pain, which are very familiar to me, but forgiveness is a two way street. I have forgiven every transgression of yours. Can you not forgive the pain I allowed to be given you? Just know that I have reasons you'll never understand in this life, only in your eternal life to come, why your suffering was necessary and accrues to your entire benefit, one-hundred fold."
This, good readers, is exactly the situation you and I and all faithful people are in. A huge war is raging, and will soon be over. Can we not forgive the Creator of all life, and trust that He knows what He's doing? Trust in Scripture, particularly the Apostle Paul, in 2 Thessalonians 2:
The Man of Lawlessness [Satan]
"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God..... and he will work [dark] miracles..."
There are benefits for believing in God that you may not have thought about:
We only have a limited time to act and save our souls and spirits. Don't procrastinate. Consider how timely this song was in 1969 when it first hit the charts:
