A little baby died this week of a kiss.

Maybe you heard - little Mariana Sifrit of Iowa was just 18 days old when she died of viral meningitis most likely passed on when someone kissed her - a gesture of love and affection gone horribly awry.

The deeper tragedy is that Mariana’s death is added to the ocean of heartbreak that makes up human life – for the prevalence and predominance of evil is simply too immense to avoid.

And the Bible has some things to say about this.

This Sunday we will hear a familiar parable from Jesus about a farmer who sows wheat and an enemy who secretly sows weeds in the same bed. Surprisingly Jesus advises no action – he says the good and the bad seeds are to grow up together, living and thriving alongside one another, until the day of completion when a judgment will come.

I am drawn to St. Augustine’s words, “Almighty God, himself supremely good, would never allow anything evil to invade his works, unless he were so almighty and so good that he can bring good even out of evil.”

Let us consider that God is up to more than we can know.

Our response to evil can never be one of ultimate failure. God is up to something in both the good and the bad. Have faith, hold on - God is not finished yet.