Jonah and the Vine

The other night I was reading the book of Jonah for my Old Testament class and was reminded of a children's church activity I planned and led for a group of kids when I was maybe 14.  After we read the story of Jonah, we made bracelets from three different colors of green yarn that we braided together.  Attached to the bracelets were little cards with a scripture reference from chapter four of Jonah.  If you know the story, this is at the end where Jonah is angry at God for His compassion on the Ninevites after they hear Jonah's message from God and repent.  Jonah just wants to die because of the mercy shown to these savage people, and he leaves town but decides to hunker down within sight of Nineveh (probably hoping God still destroys the city).  God provides a vine (my bracelets--clever, I know) for Jonah to comfort him, and of course, Jonah is happy for this.  The next day the vine is destroyed by a worm sent by God, and Jonah is in the hot sun wishing he would die again.  God ends the story by telling Jonah that he has been more concerned about a vine than with the physical and spiritual fates of 120,000 people.  Why wouldn't He have compassion on them?

Looking back on this, I think of two things.  First, what a depressing story for a group of elementary school aged children!  All the Sunday School lessons on Jonah focus on him being swallowed by the big fish and saved by God.  Sorry, kids, you're not going to get that from me.  Life's tough--get over it.  (Now I know why I was never asked again to help out with children's church.  It looks like Carter will be a child who will hear about the hard truths in life earlier than most kids.)  It's like I was telling the kids that they are not the only ones on God's radar, and He will take away our precious comforts in life in order for us to realize that there are more important things to care about.  Now that I'm thinking about it, did I actually tell them that?

Second, I think about how we act like Jonah way too often than what we would like to admit.  Here's one of Jonah's laments that seem overly dramatic, but unfortunately we are also guilty of:

He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home?  That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.  Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live."

Jonah 4:2-3

It's kind of sad and funny at the same time.  He did not want any part in helping these heathens, and now that God proved to be merciful and compassionate again, he just couldn't take it.  How many times do we forget that God's amazing will is not just for us?  We see reaching out to others as a lost cause because of our preconceived notions and prejudice.  We get upset when others receive blessings while we're still searching for ours.  We see ourselves as qualified judges of worth and experts in the field of "sow and reap" economics.

The part of the story specifically about the vine brings to mind Job crying out to God after his family is killed:

"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart.  The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

Job 1:21 (emphasis mine)

Now Jonah didn't participate in praising God after his sun-blocking vine died, and a lot of times we don't when our "vine" dies either.  We fail to see the bigger picture, the greater purpose, the ultimate plan.  Our hearts scream, "What about ME?!"  Consider this exchange:

But God said to Jonah, "Do you have a right to be angry about the vine?"
"I do," he said.  "I am angry enough to die."

Jonah 4:9

How did Jonah not get smacked?  Job was so humble through his trials, and at the end of his story he still gets a good "Who do you think you are?" lecture from God.  Why does God work in strange (strange, to us) ways?

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.

Isaiah 55:6-8

I take comfort in knowing that our Creator has a better view than I do and knows what true justice is compared to my skewed human definition.  I just pray that I can believe this is my heart when He tells me, like Jonah, to go.