Where was God in this Situation?
How could He has permitted this to happen?
Why would an-all loving Father permit such evil – the abuse of a child?
These questions are asked by those who believe in God and attend church regularly…and they get asked by those who want nothing to do with God or a church…
They get asked by the victims…and they get asked by the people who care about them…
They get asked by therapists, crisis centers, teachers, guidance counselors…
They get asked by parents, pastors, college students…
They may have been asked by you…
There is no question that evil is incomprehensible. A million books and websites on this topic will never be able to fully help the human mind understand. There are some things too vast, too horrible, too painful to completely understand, like death, natural disasters, war. We struggle to see what good could possibly be in the situation.
War, for instance. We may logically in our head understand the need to declare war in a particular situation; we may feel retaliation, protection, or focus on the goal. But our hearts will struggle to reconcile those things when a young man in the prime of his life – your brother – is cut down on the battlefield.
We may be thankful that our spouse is no longer suffering the side effects of chemotherapy or out of the pain that the morphine drip could no longer control, but that doesn’t mean our hearts understand why he needed to be stricken with cancer.
And when a young child is physically, emotionally and mentally violated by sexual abuse – we don’t get it. It is impossible to see any good in this situation. And we may blame God.
There are many victims who were abused by their fathers and cannot walk into a church and hear about their Heavenly Father because “father” is such a negative connotation to them – and brings up painful memories. It is hard to hear that God loves us when the person who abused us may have been the only person in our young lives – or the first personĂ‚Â to tell us that we were loved. So what does that say about love?
There are no easy answers to these questions. We’ve all asked them. But I can assure you that we do have a loving God, no matter how difficult it may be to believe that. I know what He has done in my life and in the lives of others around me. I know He loves you, even though you may not believe that or are in a place to hear that right now.
It took me almost 40 years to really believe that God loved me, so I understand your reluctance or resistance. I cannot explain or answer why you were abused, but I know my purpose is to help others know that they are not alone and that there can be healing for them, as there was for me. I no longer doubt how much God loves me and I have seen the incredible changes and peace that have resulted from that love in my life. I take heart from God’s Word and this particular verse has especially ministered to me:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Gen. 50:20, NIV)
