February 4, 2021 – Click here to listen
I returned last night from an arduous trip to Madison County near Honey Lake to get our COVID vaccinations. We elected to drive rather than fly because either way would have taken the same amount of time considering the amount of time it would take if we drove up to Miami airport, plus we had our little dog Cooper to consider, and the risk of COVID from flying with sick people.
I am awaiting surgery on my lower back for herniated and bulging discs and riding in a car causes very intense pain. It was no fun riding in a car for 15 hours over two days and by the time we got there Tuesday evening I was in so much pain I could barely get out of the car and walk. But after a night’s rest, Wednesday we headed over and to get our shots and by noon we had been successfully immunized and were headed back to the keys.
The drive back was worse than the one up and the pain was so intense I was very close to throwing up from it by the time we got to Orlando. So we stopped and got gas and my wife drove.
So we were driving along and I was feeling sorry for myself when my son called. He told me that one of his new employees had called and was crying and bawling uncontrollably. She had just talked to the doctor and her 4 year old son had been diagnosed with a brain tumor and it was inoperable and terminal. He told me his employee was just 24 years old and he asked if I would pray for her. I told him of course and that I would pray for her night and day.
At that moment my pain became secondary. This one hit too close to home. My brother’s son, Bob, who was named after me, was five when he died from a brain tumor. Two years later my mother died from one too. I’ve had many bad experiences and tragedies that I’ve lived through, but nothing was ever as bad as the death of that little boy. He suffered as no one should ever suffer, especially an innocent little child. The cancer had spread to his spine and he was in constant pain all over his body. It was a blessing when he finally died in my brother’s arms looking up at him telling him, “Daddy I want to go home.” His funeral was the saddest that I’ve ever attended and the sight of that little white coffin still haunts me.
My brother fell apart after that experience and Little Bob’s death and later my mother’s death played a large part in his suicide just a few years later. He turned to drugs and alcohol to fight his depression and it only made things worse.
At times like this that we must turn to God for strength. Instead many including most of our family at the time lashed out and blamed God. It served no purpose and if lashing out at someone just had to be done, it should have been directed toward Satan who hates us and enjoys our suffering rather than God who loves us.
I confess I will never understand why God allows suffering for little children. It is far easier to understand my own pain that is derived from old age and the wild sinful life I led in my youth.
I do know that death is the result of sin and though Catherine’s child will suffer and the anguish of the family will be intense, it is but for a short season and heaven is just around the corner and in ten thousand years it will not even be a bump on the road compared to the glory of heaven. Jesus defeated death on the cross once and for all for any and all who choose to follow Him as their Savior. He is the only living Son of God and He suffered more than any human ever suffered. To those who think God doesn’t understand our plight, they need only look to the cross.
I believe that our Father God shed tears for Jesus while He was suffering as any loving Father would. Jesus shed tears for Lazarus just before He raised him from the dead, so there is precedent for my theory. He sees our pain and knows how it feels, but yet He still allows it.
Some demand to know “why?” I quit asking the “why” questions long ago. Someone living through a hell like this quite naturally demands an answer as to why this has happened to their child, but they should know that this question is unanswerable. We must focus on something else instead of torturing ourselves with unanswerable questions.
God has elected not to share everything with us for His own reasons. Maybe it is too involved for us to comprehend or maybe He has other reasons. All we can do is trust in Him. We know He loves us and He has provided a way through the terrible crucifixion of His own Son, Jesus Christ, so we can enjoy eternal life where there is no sorrow and grief. If He didn’t love us, then why would He have allowed Jesus to suffer? He wouldn’t have, no He loves us, but it still does not explain why bad things happen to good people, especially young children.
Please take a moment wherever you are and pray for this little boy, his mother Catherine, and their entire family. I pray for a miracle, but if none is forthcoming and the doctor is right in his diagnosis, I pray that they will not lose faith and turn to God in this time of tribulation and stay close to Him. I do know that they will need every ounce of strength they can muster and pray that our Lord will provide it. If it is in your heart please add them to your prayer list as I have done and cry out to the Lord for mercy for them.
1 Cor. 2:16
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.