Pain

One of my sons has a painful wound that requires cleaning and applying ointment to bring about healing (ah, the joys of parenthood). The entire process is very painful for him (and much more painful for me), and the process is complicated by the fact that he is too young to understand what is happening. In his limited persepective, all he knows is that his daddy is hurting him. I know that the painful process of cleaning the wound and applying medicine is the only way to bring healing, but he can't see past the pain.

I think that we often look at God with the same, misguided persective that my son has. We blame Him for our pain, since He's the one who's in control. What we don't see is the pain that He endures as we suffer and how our pain is often the only way to bring spiritual healing and the development of wisdom and Christ-like character which is His ultimate goal for our life, but still, all we see is that our comfort has been taken away and replaced with pain. Next time life brings you pain, instead of blaming God, ask Him to use the experience to draw you closer to Jesus. That is a prayer that He will always answer!