The Joy of Providence

'Belief in God's providence is the practical recognition that things are as we have said. [Barth has just been describing providence as God's caring co-existence with his creatures] It is the joy of the confidence and the willingness of the obedience grounded in this reality and its perception. In the belief in providence the creature understands the Creator as the One who has associated Himself with it in faithfulness and constancy as this sovereign and living Lord, to precede, accompany and follow it, preserving, co-operating and overruling, in all that it does and all that happens to it. And in the belief in providence the creature understands itself as what it is in relation to its Creator, namely, as upheld, determined and govened in its whole existence in the world by the fact that Creator precedes it every step of the way in living sovereignty, so that it has only to follow...' Church Dogmatics, III.3.14

But what of the uncertainty of our experience? Our feeling of God-forsakeness (check the Psalms sometime!). Ultimately, as Barth will argue, the Christian belief in providence is belief in Christ. That makes all the difference...