Less than one inch.
That was the distance that separated former President Donald Trump from being struck in the temple by an assassin’s bullet on July 13 at a rally in Butler, Pa. Had the gunman hit his intended target, America’s 45th president would have died instantly.
By now, you know the story well: The bullet hit Trump’s right ear, barely missing his temple. Trump turned his head just before the bullet sizzled past him. In his Tuesday night address at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Ted Cruz opened by saying, “I want to thank God Almighty for protecting President Trump, for turning his head before the shot was fired.”
Cruz is correct. In God’s kind providence, Trump was spared by divine intervention, and we are grateful for that, which should be the case no matter how we vote. Christians must oppose political violence of every kind.
But another bullet — also intended for the former president — struck and tragically killed rally attendee Corey Comperatore, a firefighter and Christ-follower who heroically shielded his wife and daughters from harm as inbound shells screamed across the sun-baked venue. Comperatore lost his life, his wife and children were saved — a tragic but powerful depiction of the gospel.
Secret Service sharp shooters, poised on a nearby roof, shot and killed the gunman, Thomas Crooks.
It all took 10 to 15 seconds.
In that instant, lives were spared, lives were lost, lives were forever changed. If God spared Trump’s life, what about Comperatore, who was merely attending a political rally with his family? Why didn’t God cause that bullet to miss? And what of the shooter? Did God not see him up on that roof?
Yes, God saw Crooks. And He wasn’t napping when the bullet struck the courageous firefighter. God is omniscient and omnipresent. Did God cause the bullet to merely nick Trump so he could win November’s election and help America arise from its low ebb as many of my fellow conservatives are predicting? Perhaps. Time will tell.
We must exercise caution in interpreting providence. God’s providence is seen most clearly in retrospect. Think of His invisible hand in your story: You see now what you couldn’t see back then.
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW, WHAT WE DO KNOW
Why did He allow Corey Comperatore to die? Why was the shooter able to hide in plain view? We cannot know the answer to these questions right now if ever, but we do know this: God is sovereign over all events and all people, and in His providence, those events unfolded the way He decreed them in eternity past.
We know He is both sovereign and good, and we can trust Him. And we pray for all the families involved that God will draw near them in merciful comfort and bring glory to Himself from those harrowing moments.
God is perfectly just and righteous in all His ways with us, even when we don’t fully understand them (and often, we don’t). God doesn’t always tell us why because He doesn’t owe us why. We can trust Him because God never gets the wrong address, and He’s never late: “God is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works” (Ps. 145:17).
As Horatius Bonar wrote, “God would not be God were He not absolutely sovereign.” The history of our fallen world is God’s history. God was sovereign on the morning of 9/11 and at Pearl Harbor. God was there when my dad survived Normandy (and I am here to write about it as a result) when many of his fellow soldiers didn’t. God reigned in Eden when our first parents tragically ate the fruit.
God rules over every person, every event, and every atom, every molecule, and every subatomic particle in His created order. That’s called God’s providence, and there is no teaching of Scripture that gives us greater comfort. Could we worship a God who is flaky and weak like us?
I offer a few thoughts on this stabilizing doctrine, though this barely scratches the surface of everything Scripture teaches us about God’s kingship. As Jeffrey Johnson puts it in his excellent book, The Sovereignty of God, “The doctrine of divine sovereignty reorients the mind; it turns our worldview right side up after man’s arrogant rebellion against God has turned it upside down.” Amen and hallelujah.
GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY AND PROVIDENCE
1. God’s providence is both comprehensive and meticulous.
God created everything, so His control and moment-to-moment superintendence extends to the thunderstorm as well as the lightning bug, the hurricane as well as a baby’s breathing. He rules over all nations and all political leaders. Not one blade of grass blows in the remotest field apart from God’s command. Every birthday and the date of every funeral is written in God’s book of history (Ps. 139:16). God gives success and rules over failure (Ps. 75:7).
God’s Word makes this truth clear from Genesis to Revelation. For starters, see: Psalm 103:19, Proverbs 16:4, Isaiah 29:16, Isaiah 45:7, Matthew 5:45, Matthew 6:26, Acts 17:26; Philippians 4:19.
2. Little things mean a lot.
God is always at work, and He often works through secondary causes (including those who proclaim the gospel to the saving of sinners) to accomplish his will. Every human action has meaning. An old parable expresses it perfectly:
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost.
And all from the want of a horseshoe nail.
Esther 6 tells readers the king “could not sleep.” He couldn’t sleep because God kept him awake. Because of the king’s insomnia, Mordecai was saved, and Esther and her people, the Jews, were saved. Queen Esther’s book doesn’t mention God, but it’s clear that He is the Mover behind her story’s every movement.
Country singer Brad Paisley’s hit “Love Starts with a Toothbrush” illustrates this truth in a way to which most of us can relate. A high school boy brushes his teeth and splashes on some cologne to make himself tidy for a date. Eventually, he marries the girl, and they have a family. A boy’s attention to hygiene helped sow the seeds of love that grew into a family tree.
Little things mean a lot. Mundane moments make history.
3. There is no such thing as chance or fate.
R.C. Sproul is particularly helpful here: “God’s providence is vastly different from fate, luck, or chance. Fortune is blind, but God is all-seeing. Fate is impersonal, while God is a Father. There are no blind, impersonal forces at work in human history. Every event is brought to pass by the invisible hand of providence.”
God either causes or allows (His permissive will) everything.
4. God can turn what appears evil into good.
The story of Joseph in the latter chapters of Genesis profoundly illustrates this truth. Joseph’s brothers, jealous of his father’s favor, sell him into slavery. Providentially, he winds up in an Egyptian jail but later finds favor with Pharaoh. Joseph rises to become the number two man in Egypt. God brings famine on the region, but He leads Joseph to store up a massive food supply. Joseph’s family is saved, and from his line came the Messiah millennia later.
Joseph forgives his brothers and utters words that echo through history into 6:11 p.m., July 13, 2024: “As for you (his brothers), you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
Of course, the ultimate example was the murder of Jesus. Evil men with wicked intent nailed Him to the cross, but His death brought redemption to a world enslaved to sin and death.
Romans 8:28 is a soothing truth: “God causes all things to work together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” All things. No exceptions. Ponder that.
5. God’s providence does not eliminate human responsibility.
Evil acts do not fall outside of God’s sovereignty, yet those who commit them remain culpable. Again, the cross serves as the ultimate illustration: “… this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23). God planned Calvary before the foundation of the world, yet Scripture calls its perpetrators “lawless men.” God is sovereign, yes, but sinners will give an account to God for every untoward word (Matt. 12:36-37).
WE LIVE INCHES FROM ETERNITY
Truth is, we are an inch (or less) from eternity at every moment.
How many times on the interstate do we pass three feet from a drunk driver? God keeps him from ramming us, and we drive on none the wiser.
How many times do we miss picking up a nasty virus another person left on the restroom sink handle? God leads us to wash our hands at another sink.
How many times do we drive through a spot on the highway where another car would’ve hit us head-on had we arrived five seconds earlier?
How often does God keep our heart beating as we sleep through the night? Every single night.
How many times do His angels shield us from harm in ten thousand different situations?
Heaven and hell lurk nearby every moment because death lurks nearby, ever an inch away, but here’s the best news: A holy God rules over the inches.
WHAT DO YOU UNDERSTAND BY THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD?
God’s providence is His almighty and ever-present power, whereby, as with His hand, He upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed, all things, come not by chance but by His fatherly hand.
(Heidelberg Catechism, Question 27)