My question to you is this: Does God really have a reason for when things go wrong?
My Mom has epilepsy. In other words, she has seizures. Watching my Mom have seizures was one of the worst things my siblings, Dad, and I ever had to go through. Because we normally do not have any ideo when or where seizures will occur, many of my childhood days where filled with “What if?”
I remember being in a grocery store. My Dad and younger sister were on a “date”. Dad takes each of us kids out once a month to spend time together. Mom had my two other siblings and me with her. I was probably only five years old. I remember going down an aisle when a lady asked Mom if she would like some coupons. Mom thanked her, and they began to chat. One moment they were just having a normal conversation and the next Mom was on the floor, bleeding. I remember sobbing as I hid behind the cart. They called the ambulance and then they took Mom away. I felt so helpless and alone, but there was nothing anyone could do to help. I still shudder when I go down that aisle.
Mom did have medicine but sometimes it did not work. One summer she had five seizure within two months, and that is very unusual. Every time she woke up, however, the first words out of her mouth were, “Thank You Jesus.” Inside I would think, Why, Why thank Him?
The last seizure Mom ever had was nothing compared to the previous ones. It was Mother’s Day, and we had family over. We had just sat down to eat when I looked over at Mom and realized that she was having a seizure. I yelled. Dad and my uncles jumped up to help her and then started to move her to a bed. I was in the living room just settling down to have a good cry when all of a sudden, Mom woke up. This was very unusual because of the type of seizures she had. Normally when Mom woke up, she would be very tired and unable to move.
After that, Mom decided to go to a different doctor. He gave her some new medicine, and she has not has a seizure since. We believe God healed her. Still, in the back of my mind, I always wondered, Why?
During the summer of 2006 I was given the opportunity to serve as a counselor in training at a small Christian camp in Bliss, New York. During the second week, a junior week for kids ages eight to eleven, I was asked to lead the nightly Bible study. My topic was how God protects us even at a young age, so He can use us later in life for His purposes. After the girls had somewhat settled down, I began to share with them this story about my Mother and me.
When I was a newborn baby my Mother would always make sure that Dad was in the same room when she gave me a bath. This was just in case she had a seizure. One day she decided to give me on while he was in bed napping. For some odd reason she changed her mind and decided that we would take a nap instead with Dad. She had a seizure while in bed. When she awoke, she realized what had happened. If she had given me a bath as planned, I would have drowned, But I did not drown because God had a purpose for me. He did not allow Mom to give me a bath as she had planned because He was saving me for something bigger.
As I was telling the story, one of my campers unexpectedly started to sob. The other counselor took her outside the cabin while I continued my Bible study. However, I could not get over the fact that she had begun to cry when I mentioned seizures. Just as I was wrapping up my devotional, they came back. We prayed and then I went over to her bunk. I can not convey the depth of emotion that went though me as I knelt by her bunk and talked to her. As she cried, I felt again the uncertainties, the terror, the hurt; except this time it was not me but another little girl who was hurting. I found out later that her little sister had died because of a seizure by suffocation in her pillow.
I went out onto the porch after I had calmed and prayed with her. Then the tears began to flow, not because I was sad although that emotion was present, but because my question of Why had been answered. God know what that little girl needed. She needed not only sympathy but someone that could truly empathize with her because I had been there. She need someone who knew.
To answer the question, “Does God really have a reason for when things go wrong?” The answer is an emphatic yes. Sometimes He allows us to experience something so that later on we can help another person going through the exact same thing. He has a purpose for every single thing that happens to each of us. We must trust Him to fulfull that purpose in His time.
