Nearly eight years ago, I sat at dinner in a restaurant with my husband and three youngest children. My youngest son, six years old at the time, was behaving a little strangely. While waiting for the waitress to take our order, he drank his water, then he drank mine, then he drank his nearest sister’s water. I wondered what he had eaten that made him so thirsty. As the dinner was served he continued to drink everything he could reach every time the waitress filled our glasses.
That night, after everyone was in bed, I went downstairs and looked up symptoms of diabetes. At that point, my son had only two of the symptoms. I hoped that the crazy thirst was just a fluke. The next night, as my son got out of the bathtub, I noticed that I could see every rib. Sudden weight loss is another symptom of type 1 diabetes. Again I put everyone to bed and retreated to the basement. This time I begged God to spare my son. I pleaded with Him to give me the diabetes instead. Normally my prayers ended with “Thy will be done,” but not this time. I was NOT ok with my son being sick and I made that very clear.
At the doctor’s office the next morning, the diagnosis was confirmed. My beautiful little boy was doomed to constant finger pricking and insulin injections and counting the carbohydrate value of everything he ate or drank for the rest of his life. There is no cure. We were sent to spend three days at the children’s hospital to stabilize his blood sugar and learn how to cope with this disease.
I brought my Bible along to the hospital, but I didn’t read it that week, and I didn’t pray at all. I was angry at God for giving my son diabetes, and I was hurt that He had not answered my prayers. Like nearly everyone I know, I believed that God was “up there” controlling everything that happened in my life. If only I had known then what I know now.
Many Christians believe that God is good, and that whatever He does, He does for a reason. They believe that someday they will understand why He caused or allowed every rotten thing they have experienced, just as I eventually became resigned to the diabetes and told my son I didn’t know why God gave it to him but to just trust Him because He knew what He was doing.
Fast forward many years to the time I began to read the Bible with the revelation that it is all true. Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” That makes it pretty clear that if there is stealing and killing and destroying going on, it isn’t Jesus doing it.
When Jesus was on the earth, He healed the sick, He fed the hungry, He gave sight to the blind. He willingly suffered all the punishment we deserved so that we might have life. It is the thief, Satan, who comes to steal our joy and destroy our lives and kill us by war and crime and accident and disease. Why doesn’t God stop him?
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He planted a beautiful garden that contained everything needed by mankind. And it was all good. There was no sickness or crime. There wasn’t even bad weather! So what happened? We know about Eve and the forbidden fruit, but why was that such a big deal?
God had given mankind dominion (power and authority) over the earth. Once God says something, He never goes back on his word. So even though man did not do what God intended, God could not take back the authority that he had given. It’s like you give your daughter a car and tell her to use it to get to school and work and wherever they need to go. You give her only one rule: never let anyone else drive. Off your kid goes, and pretty soon, she picks up a hitchhiker. The hitchhiker is a really smooth talker and convinces your daughter that everything will be so much better if she lets him drive. He gets behind the wheel and proceeds to start speeding, driving recklessly, and mowing down little old ladies. That’s not what you wanted the car to be used for, but you did give it to your kid. Once you signed the title over, there’s only so much you can do. When the hitchhiker goes spinning out of control, your child is going to pay the price.
So God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth, and they handed it over to the devil when they chose his smooth talk over God’s intentions, kind of like your daughter let the hitchhiker drive. And that’s the deal with God and the earth. God still wants good things for us, but He is spirit, and he can only act on earth through people. He gave us free will and never violates it. We can choose to act in accord with His will and reap the blessings He has promised us, or we can go our own way and suffer the consequences.
God did not choose for my son to have diabetes any more than He chose for Cain to murder Abel. God created mankind perfect and whole; there was no disease in the Garden of Eden. That original sin opened the door to all the corruption that is in the earth today. Sometimes our suffering is a result of choices we have made, sometimes it’s a result of someone else’s choice, and sometimes it’s just a result of living in a fallen world that has been corrupted by every wrong choice since the time of Adam and Eve.
Eventually, through studying the Scriptures, I came to realize that God is still good. He does still love us and want good things for us, just like we want good things for our children. He sent Jesus to get our authority back from the devil, and as believers in Jesus we have His power to defeat the works of the enemy. I am in the process of learning about the authority I have and learning how to use it. I have stopped blaming God for what the devil does to us and what we do to each other. Instead, I thank God that He has given me, and all believers, everything we need to live an abundant life.