God Doesn't Make Mistakes

God Doesn’t Make Mistakes

This is a phrase that I find myself repeating often. God doesn’t make mistakes. You see I have two children with chronic, potentially life threatening health conditions. Recently, a community of families that I belong to lost several precious children due to life threatening conditions. When the news came I was heartbroken that these families would now have to journey through the deep grief and emptiness that they now would have to face. It is a journey that none of us ever want to personally have to enter into but in reality so many each and every day have to face head on.

It is only human to wonder why. Why, my child. That is were faith comes in. You see, when sin entered the world, humanity faced the consequences of a fallen world. In this life we will face trials, hardships, pain, sadness, and unfortunately death. No one is exempt from these adversities. Does the knowledge that everyone will go through adversity make our own journey easier? Do some face more adversity that others, yes, most definitely.

When faced with adversity of any kind you have two choices, crumble or persevere. I have found that often times our children teach us more through the process than we realize. These children are fighters, warriors, determined, and unrelenting in their fight. Is their fight in vain? No, most definitely not. Is it sometimes more than a parent can handle emotionally, definitely! Watching our child suffer is indescribable. These are the times when we have to remind our children as well as ourselves that, God doesn’t make mistakes!! Through suffering we grow in ways that, though painful, are strengthening. Through our journey others are impacted.  God has a perfect plan and purpose for all that we go through. Sometimes this side of heaven we may never understand the why’s. Other times, if we simply look, we can see the good that comes out of the bad.

I, by no means, mean to imply that there is not a darker side because there is. When you first discover that your child’s health is compromised your first reaction is to feel anger, fear, resentment, denial, and a whole gamut of emotions. Your life is turned upside down. You begin your “new normal” a normal that you ever imagined you would have to walk. You wonder and question, Why my child? Sometimes you wonder if you will wake up and realize that it was all a bad dream. In the deepest, darkest days of the journey you feel like time stands still. Just getting up in the morning, breathing, and putting on foot in front of the other can be challenging. Living through countless appointments, procedures, surgeries, therapies, and the dreaded wait when test results are pending can be all consuming. Pleading with God when your child is fighting for their life when doctors say that they are not sure your child will make it is a place no parent should have to experience. Watching your child suffer and not being able to take it away or make it better is a helpless feeling. Knowing what to say when you child asks, why did God choose to make me like this? These are a few challenges one faces when dealing with a child with chronic illness.

As a parent I have had to face the possibility of loosing my child. Thankfully, God has spared me from such tragedy. I forever gained a new understanding of how fragile and precious life really is. None of us are exempt from death. We will all eventually die. Some never make it into the world, some life only minutes or hours, day, or weeks. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to loose a child. I pray that God never chooses to allow that to happen. Reality is, is that it happens. Does it mean that when a child dies young their life was somehow not important? No, not at all! God has a perfect purpose, and plan for each of us. Sometimes, He chooses to fulfill that in a shorter amount of time. Each life is a miracle, a blessing, and has a purpose. Memories and legacies live on, even after death. As a believer, I can find great comfort in knowing that physical death does not mean eternal death. For those that know the Lord, death is temporary and someday we will be reunited, for eternity, with our loved one.