Last week the reading from Job explored the complexity of God’s creative energy: tearing down in order to build up, unmaking us so that we may be re-made. Similarly, this week’s text, from Lamentations 3:22-33, acknowledges that suffering and setbacks are not a sign that God is absent but that God is at work in our world.

Last week the reading from Job explored the complexity of God’s creative energy: tearing down in order to build up, unmaking us so that we may be re-made. Similarly, this week’s text, from Lamentations 3:22-33, acknowledges that suffering and setbacks are not a sign that God is absent but that God is at work in our world.