Watching the pain of sin in the lives of those we love can be discouraging. Family members riddled with cancer, friends suffering the final stages of AIDS, children living with birth defects. Just this week a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination left the campaign trail to spend time with his daughter who was hospitalized from complications of Trisomy-18.
God does not wish any should die. Nor does He plan for anyone to experience cancer or AIDS or birth defects. The people in Christ's day believed sickness and suffering was the punishment of God. People today still seem to think that way about certain diseases.
But God has a time appointed for judgment. Yes, the consequences of sin in our physical bodies may be felt. Yes, we may carry disease or defects, but not because God is angry or no longer loves us. They are the result of a choice made in a garden long ago and the compounding choices which followed.
God loves His children. Through pain and suffering, death and disease, defects and disasters, Jesus woos us. He remains close to comfort us. He gives us courage in the face of sin. He redeems us in the midst of darkness.
Don't let the blight of sin pull you from the arms of Christ. Don't let "Christians" tell you God is punishing you because of the consequences of sin. Jesus loves you and redeems you in the midst of your darkness.
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