It breaks my heart to see and hear so many who don’t understand why the world is the way it is.

Because God has set eternity on every human heart Ecclesiastes 3:11, every man, woman and child yearns for a place called Eden (by one name or another), and to live at peace in a restored and perfect world.

Because this desire is so strong, those who don’t fully understand God’s nature either blame him for the way the world is (because he’s not a good god and he’s not fixing it), or feel that this imperfect world is simply evidence against his authorship.

A most common complaint the world over is “Why?” “Why did that happen?” “Why is this happening?” “Why do bad things happen to good people?” These are all variations of the same question, and expose a great lack of understanding of God’s power, grace, and love. Surprisingly, it’s the same question even the most devout Christian may ask during their own personal trials.

Those who believe in God may attempt to comfort others during hardship with words like, “It’s all part of God’s plan.” But this does not help to console, because it fails to answer the question, mostly because the one saying this doesn’t really believe it themselves. In fact, this statement stands in stark contradiction to God’s nature. And by declaring that it’s God’s plan for mankind, wildlife, and the environment to suffer and endure such pain and hardship, one sets God against Creation. And this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Mary, did you know that the Three Wise Men never made it to Bethlehem that night?

The Christmas Story, along with the Nativity scene (however ethnically incorrect those participants may be), always tells the story that includes the three wise men, or “magi” as the later translations of the Bible write it. So let’s take a look.

I was recently in Houston with my family, and on our last day of our trip, we were planning to visit the NASA Space Center there.

Early that morning, I went out for a walk to engage God in conversation. During that time, I began considering and praying for all those involved in the Space Program, from the beginning until now, those who have lived and for those who have given their lives to the adventure of discovering the truth through space exploration.

Like so many adventurers before them, in so many different ways and purposes, each individual on this earth who has pursued the unknown with the hope of discovery, has unwittingly preserved and encouraged the idea and the need for hope in this broken world.

When my kids were teenagers, there were times when each had presented me with a need for help with algebra problems that were complex and based on mathematical formulas I hadn’t seen or used since high school.

At those times, I would try to conjure up some distant memory that might allow me to show the depth of my parental wisdom and knowledge, and impress my child by quickly demonstrating the solution. But the reality was always much more humbling (or humiliating), and I would quickly realize that I often (not always) had no ability to retrieve from my mind any methods for solving the problem at hand. Instead, I was forced to confess that I had no idea of how to solve that specific type of problem.

So what could I do when I didn’t remember the exact logic of the appropriate formula, or, more frequently, couldn’t remember the formula at all? How could I go about helping them in solving this complex equation? And most importantly, how could I ensure that I didn’t misguide them by giving them direction or suggestions that could hinder their ability to solve the problem on their own?

Too often, our own pride and the desire to have a meaningful impact on the world around us affect our objectivity, and we find ourselves providing more opinion and subjective narrative than we do truthful insight and objective perspectives.