A while ago, I was chatting with a young fellow about faith in God. He said he had some questions that he needed answering before he could believe. I asked, “What’s one of those questions? Ask me.” He responded, “Why does God let babies die?” “Great question,” I said to him and rehearsed to him some of the things that I have been trying to say in this column in the past several weeks.
When God created the perfect, suffering-free world in the beginning, it was the free will decision of humankind to go against God’s way that brought imperfection into that previously perfect world. But instead of smashing the world into smithereens, as He could have, for reasons only He knows and which we can only speculate, God decided to let the show go on, though now in a sadly spoiled way: a world where good people would end up suffering.
One reason I would like to suggest as to why God decided to let that show go on is because of His “Grand Experiment”. He desired to see those who know and love Him get involved in this hurting world by helping to alleviate suffering. He wanted us to do our part to help make the pain a little bit less, in what ever way we could. And when we do, suffering is limited and God’s glory is displayed.
I remember reading about a guy who prayed to God: “God, why don’t you do something about poverty?” He said, “Then I heard God say to me, ‘Why don’t you do something?’” God wants to use us as tools to help lessen suffering in the world and correct injustice. Happily, many followers of God are doing just that.
Back on May 12, 2004, Brian Stewart, from the TV program, CBC News: Our World, spoke at to the 160th Convocation of Knox College. In his address, Stewart said, “I’ve found there is no movement, or force, closer to the raw truth of war, famines, crises, and the vast human predicament, than organized Christianity in action. And there is no alliance more determined and dogged in action than church workers, ordained and lay members, when mobilized for a common good. I have never been able to reach these front lines without finding Christian volunteers already in the thick of it, mobilizing congregations that care, and being a faithful witness to truth, the primary light in the darkness and so often, the only light.”
It was exactly this that Jesus said He would tell people at Judgment Day: “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.”
He went on to say that these people would then ask Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?”
And He said He will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.”
And that is another reason God chose to let the “Grand Experiment” keep on going.
And by the way, that young fellow chose to put his faith in God.
