MAX ON LIFE

32. I just spent the afternoon at the hospital bedside of a dear friend. She just gave birth, and her baby was born with one foot. What purpose does this serve? How can a good God permit such deformities?

Some seasons make no sense. Who can find a place in life's puzzle for the deformity of a child or the enormity of an earthquake's devastation? Do such occurrences serve a purpose?

It helps to see them from an eternal perspective. What makes no sense in this life will make perfect sense in the next. I have proof: you in the womb.

I know you don't remember this prenatal season, so let me remind you what happened. Every gestation day equipped you for your earthly life. Your bones solidified. your eyes developed, the umbilical cord transported nutrients into your growing frame.... for what reason? So you might remain enwombed? Quite the contrary. Womb time equipped you for earth time, suited you up for your post-partum existence.

Some prenatal features went unused before birth. You grew a nose but didn't breath. Eyes developed, but could you see? Your tongue, toenails, and crop of hair served no function in your mother's belly. But aren't you glad you have them now?

Certain chapters in this life seem so unnecessary, like nostrils on the preborn. Suffering. Loneliness. Disease. Holocaust. Martyrdom. If we assume this world exists just for pregrave happiness, these atrocities disqualify it from doing so. But what if this earth is the womb? Might these challenges, severe as they are, serve to prepare us, equip us for the world to come? As Paul wrote, "These little troubles are getting us ready for an eternal glory that will make all our troubles seem like nothing" (2 Cor 4:17, emphasis mine).

By: Max Lucado