Little Lives

Between Facebook and the local news, I hear about a child's death or major, life-threatening illness all the time. It seems like there's a new one daily. 

This past year, there's been so many on the news. A grandmother in Indiana decapitated her grandchild and a mother in Cincinnati did the same to her baby girl. A set of parents tortured and starved their two year old. It was horrific. The medical examiner said there was no food in her Stacy and air in her intestines. There's several more. 

The young couple here lost their four month old. A couple back home lost their daughter this weekend when her heart stopped. 

I have friends with children fighting cancer, heart problems, spina bifida and a variety of other things that are potentially life ending. 

Despite the heartache and stress, most of these parents handle themselves with grace and confidence. That's not to say they don't worry and breakdown. I know they do. Their hearts grieve for what they've lost or how there children struggle. 

I don't have to have children to know that these things are some of the most difficult of their lives. I know many of them, in their private moments, wrestle with what has or is happening. 

As a bystander, encourager, somebody watching from afar, it's a struggle for me. I feel like these are the things that make me question God's soveriegnty the most. How could a loving God? How could a Jesus who loves children? How could they? 

God formed each of those children. He knows every hair on their head. It's hard to understand why some babies come out perfect and live a seemingly perfect life, but others have such a long fight or lose the fight before their first breath. 

If you wade through the pain of each individual situation, you'll see the many ways God has worked. He works in the child's life, the parents life and through the child. If you look past the pain, you can often find a perfect plan and understand that life couldn't have been any other way. 

But on the surface, I know my heart struggles to really get it. I suppose I have to go back to the blind boy. The one where Jesus made it very clear that he was not blind because of his or his parents sin. It's obvious that his blindness was used to glorify God and show the works of Jesus. 

I think these things are in front of me constantly so that I will continue to remind myself of truth. When disease or death comes to an elderly person, it's a bit expected, even through painful. Those things don't push me to consider Gods plan or truth. The truth seems to be in the circle of life. But, children aren't the same. They haven't lived a full life. They haven't experienced enough. 

I would never say I'm thankful for any child's or parents pain. However, I have to be mindful and thankful for the many ways God uses the pain and situation. I have to be thankful for the many ways I've seen God glorified and prayers answered in so many of these.