| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 20 |
Page 5 |
Then some day she will be well. Heaven is the place where earth’s arrest growths will reach perfection, where earth’s blighted things will develop into full beauty. The child will not be sick, nor blind, nor imperfect, there. The hopelessness of her condition is only for the present life. Sometime, somewhere, the mother’s dreams of beauty, not realized here, in her child’s stunted life, will all be fulfilled, and her prayers for her child’s healing will all be answered. There is comfort in this.
But, meanwhile? Yes, it is hard to look upon the little one’s condition, so pathetic, so pitiful, and to remember the great doctor’s words, “Absolutely hopeless. She will never be any better.” Is there any comfort? Can this mother say that in this experience God is showing her the path? Yes. Is this suffering part of that path? Yes, it is. Does God know about this child’s long struggle? He knows the whole story. Has he heard the countless prayers that have gone up from this home for the baby’s recovery? He had heard every prayer. Does he know what the doctor said the other day? Yes, he knows all. Has he then no power to do anything? Yes, he has all power. Why, then, has he not cured the child? He has his reasons. Why does he allow the agony to continue in the heart of the mother?
We dare not try to answer our own questions. We do not know God’s reason. Yet one thing we know – it is all right. God is love. He is never unkind. He makes no mistakes. What good can possibly come from this child’s pitiable condition, and from its continuation, year after year in this condition? We do not know – but God knows. Perhaps it is that the child may be prepared for a glory which shall far surpass in splendour that of any child that is well and joyous now. Or perhaps it is for the sake of the father and the mother who is being led through these years of anguish, disappointment, and bitter sorrow, and will be transfigured by the experience. We know at least that these parents are receiving a wonderful training in unselfishness, in gentleness, in patience, in trust. Perhaps all this sore experience in their child is to make their hearts more gentle, to teach them trust and songs of joy.
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