‘God’s in His Heaven’

‘God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world.’

These are lines from a poem by Robert Browning. Years ago I thought these words very wrong. They gave an image of God being safely cocooned in His heaven, while there was no way that everything was alright with the world.

God is in His heaven, yes, but seeing everything that is going on in the world. He weeps when we weep, He rejoices when we rejoice. He is completely involved in everything. That makes the line right that ‘all’s right with the world.’ Yes, things are bad in the world, especially at the present in time. But because of God’s care, everything will be right in the end. We can’t see the future, but we trust in a God who can.