READ: ROMANS 8:28; 1 CORINTHIANS 13:12; REVELATION 21:1-5

It might seem odd, but I often think of kittens when I consider a very hard question: “Where is God with all the hurt going on?”

It’s a question I ask a lot, especially since my husband is a news reporter, so I often get a front-row seat to the heartbreaking and scary things happening in the world.

But that’s where kittens come in. When they’re brand new, they can’t even open their eyes. They’re helpless. All they know is that their mom is with them. They can’t see her, but they know she’s present and she cares for them.

I don’t have an answer for why bad things happen. All I know is that our world is broken because of sin, but Jesus is with us, and He’s working to fix all this. I’m like a kitten who just has to trust that I’m loved, that I’m not alone, and that my suffering won’t last forever. I recall how Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

While we can’t see everything clearly right now because we live in a world that is broken by sin, we can know that Jesus is with us, even now, and He knows how much it hurts. One day, we’ll finally see Him face-to-face and He’ll make everything new. All His people will be healed and whole. Until that day, we are like little kittens. Though we can’t see very much yet, we can rest knowing that we are loved. • Aurora Scriver

• Have you seen anything in the news lately that makes you feel unsettled? How can talking with Jesus and people we trust help us process things like this?

• No matter what happens in this broken world, you are not alone. Jesus loves you so very much, and He will never leave your side. He is stronger than anything we might face, and He promises to make all things new when He returns. In the meantime, He will be with His people every step of the way. How could these truths give us hope when we experience hard things?

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. 1 Corinthians 13:12 (NLT)