Why does God make sad things when he's sad about them?

Curiously Kaitlyn

Phil Vischer

Religion & Spirituality

5 • 759 Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Theologian and pastor Dr. Barry Jones joins Kaitlyn to tackle a tricky question that leads us to some of the most beautiful passages in Scripture. Why does God allow evil things to happen in the world when he is sad about them? Dr. Jones explains how sin grieves God, and how God's sadness at our suffering can be a comfort to us. He also shows us how we can trust God even as we await answers to some of our biggest questions about God.

0:00 - Show Starts

1:06 - Theme Song

1:56 - Why does God let sad things happen?

5:56 - God gets sad!

14:16 - Sponsor - Dwell - Listen to scripture throughout your day. Go to https://www.dwellbible.com/CK for 25% off!

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18:51 - God grieves

23:51 - Wrestling with God

28:15 - How’d you explain it to a kid?

31:57 - End Credits

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Curiously Caitlin, where we take a kid question about God, theology, or the Bible, and find a scholar to answer it.
0:07.0	This week we have a question that teaches us almost as much as the answer does.
0:12.0	Why does God make sad things happen when he's sad about them?
0:17.0	I love that this little child has learned something so important, so young, that at some
0:22.8	point in their young life they have seen something wrong in the world, and a grown-up has said,
0:27.1	God is sad about that too. Maybe they got shoved on the playground, they got sick and missed
0:33.4	a big soccer game, or maybe they even lost a loved one, or watched a friend suffer from
0:39.3	serious illness. And they, even as a young child, knew how wrong it was. And when they asked
0:45.2	a grown-up what God thought about that, they said, that makes God sad, too. Today we'll talk
0:51.2	about why God allows evil to happen, not by addressing an abstract philosophical question, but by sitting with a child who asks, but it makes God sad.
1:02.0	So why does he let it happen?
1:06.0	I don't know.
1:09.0	That doesn't make any sense.
1:12.3	Yeah.
1:13.6	Curiously.
1:15.2	Yeah.
1:19.2	Dr. Barry Jones, thank you so much for joining me again.
1:22.6	I've, like, three times now.
1:24.4	So great.
1:25.1	Yeah, I am thrilled to be back.
1:27.3	I love the show. I love you,
1:29.1	so I love the chance to be a part of it. Yeah. You're just like one of my favorite guests because
	...

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