By Miriam Rossow

“It isn’t fair.” We start saying this phrase almost as soon as we start talking. It isn’t fair that she gets the bigger half. It isn’t fair that he gets to go and I don’t. It isn’t fair that I have more homework.

Although we mature in many ways, we continue to use this phrase and feel these sentiments as adults also. It isn’t fair that I was let go. It isn’t fair that I don’t get paid more. It isn’t fair that my house didn’t sell faster, for more money, at all. It isn’t fair that I didn’t get that house, promotion, pay raise, new car. It isn’t fair that winter will never end! It isn’t fair that I am sick. It isn’t fair that my loved one died.

It isn’t fair

It isn’t fair. I have been saying this phrase a lot lately. It isn’t fair that right as things start to get “normal’ the Gigers take a call. It isn’t fair that my husband was in a car accident. It isn’t fair that my mother-in-law had complications with her hip surgery. It isn’t fair that my dad’s cancer came back in full force. It isn’t fair!

As I have been thinking about and contemplating the things happening in my life that seem unfair and unjust, I have begun to realize that I serve and follow a God who isn’t fair! At least not in the way I would expect.

If God were fair, I would be in more trouble than I can imagine. If God were fair, I would be left in the disease of the flesh for eternity. If God were fair, creation would stay in this broken state forever. If God were fair, I would have to pay in full by eternal death for all the wrongdoing in my life.

I serve and follow a God who isn’t fair! At least not in the way I would expect.

Instead, in His unfairness, He took all the punishment and pain that I deserve and heaped it on Jesus. In His unfairness, He took the disease of the flesh from me and took it upon Himself. In His unfairness, He will come again and fix the broken state of creation and restore it fully forever! In His unfairness, He looks at Jesus and sees all my wrongdoings. In His unfairness, He looks at me and sees Jesus. 

It isn’t fair that Jesus had to come into this world. It isn’t fair that God’s creation turned against Him and rebelled. It isn’t fair that Jesus took all the pain, wrongdoing, and evil to the cross. It isn’t fair that an innocent man suffered a humiliating and torturous death.

In His unfairness, He looks at me and sees Jesus.

It isn’t fair that I have been forgiven. It isn’t fair that in that innocent man’s death I have life. It isn’t fair that I am so loved.

My life and yours are full of unfairness. It isn’t fair that pain, sickness, and death are still part of this life. And soon Jesus who took all that is unfair in this world and conquered it will come back to restore eternal and godly fairness.

It isn’t fair! Come quickly, Lord!