Marielle

After a year and a-half struggle with neuroblastoma (a cancer commonly found in young children and infants) my 10-year old daughter’s best friend passed away early yesterday morning after just 8 brief years of life.

How hard it has been too watch such a sweet little girl suffer so much, even though in one sense the pain is cut by knowing that she is in the sovereign hands of her Creator. I cannot fathom how the unbeliever could ever cope with such suffering and loss with no hope of ever seeing a little child again? How does the unbelieving world survive such pain and sorrow?

I also can’t help thinking about how shallow a view of sin we seem to have. One sin provoked our God to put an almost unfathomable curse upon us all. Because of the curse of God upon a sinful human race this little girl suffered for so long before passing away. Because of the curse of God upon a sinful human race her parents, siblings and other family members had to watch almost helplessly as this disease slowly took this little girl away from them. Because of the curse of God upon a sinful human race untold multitudes of others have died in similar and even worse ways. Just think of the sheer amount of pain and suffering that has swept over the human race since our first mother and father sinned; either God is sadistic and wicked for cursing us in such a horrible manner or sin is much more horrible than we can imagine.

While those who refuse to trust in the Lord can probably see nothing but the sadistic and the wicked in such a God who would let such things happen, it is an entirely different story to those who look to the Lord with a broken and contrite heart.

What a blessing it is to know the Lord, that He is neither sadistic nor wicked. What a blessing it is to know that even in the midst of feeling the blows of His wrath in the curse, that He holds out a hand of mercy to His children. What a blessing it is to see His smiling face, by faith, behind a frowning providence. And what a blessing it is to know that your sins have been forgiven, their guilt expunged and that the curse, as horrible as it seems right now, will come to nothing in the case of His redeemed in the age to come!