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As a child, I read many books: Pinocchio, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, Peter Rabbit and Tom Thumb, to mention a few. I read many books now. One thing every book I have read has in common is that they all have happy endings. We demand the denouement to have a just conclusion, or we feel robbed. Have you ever wondered why that is? We like happy endings. It's human to see justice prevail.
I was in Manila Airport earlier this year. I was waiting in a long, long queue to get through security. Well guess what? Someone tried to skip the queue. Many in the queue reacted and the perpetrator was sent packing (forgive the pun). As humans, we cannot accept this kind of behaviour, it triggers our ethical alarm bell, our sense of fairness.
You know this, we are led to believe we are in an aimless universe with no meaning. But If so, why fair play? If we are creatures dancing to our DNA, justice would never prevail.
Many years ago, I was searching and searching and searching for answers to this dilemma. It was then that I had one of those experiences you only read in fiction. By sheer serendipity, I opened a book about justice and found the following paragraph.
‘[God] has so inseparably interwoven the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by observing the former; and, if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter.’
William Blackstone, an 18th century British jurist, penned this. I found the unpacking of it fascinating. Was there a universal sense of justice? I wondered. Is this gravitational pull towards goodness in my conscience that accuses and excuses me, the work of a wise architect? It made sense. Why form the moon, the stars, the earth, and mankind without a gravitational pull towards what is right and wrong?
Many choose to abuse their God-given free will, but those who respond to God's direction will find a future life in which justice will be an everlasting paradigm.
"let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." Amos 5: 24.
Consider:
"...that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;" Acts 17:27.
If there is a God who nudges us towards goodness, why not approach him?