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Stillborn
Children And The Handicapped
by thimblefulloftheology
Question: Since
many children die as soon as they are born, what’s the purpose of a newborn
baby who dies after some minutes? Why does God give or insert a soul to
children who die as soon as they leave the womb?
Answer: We might ask a similar question about people who never
develop mentally and emotionally enough to come to know God (at least, we can’t
tell that they have).
I think the answer lies in the fact that God has a purpose for
their lives and quite likely they are received into His care in heaven upon death,
so their eternal purpose is clear, but their short or attenuated lives serve a
purpose in how we receive them or experience their brief time with us or how we
care for them as those who never fully develop.
They have a purpose in our lives that is crucial for our
development.
We learn something about unconditional love and about grieving
their loss that is important to our growth as those God has ordained to be
conformed to the image of Christ (Romans
8:28-29).
Of the man born blind mentioned in John 9, Jesus said that his
blindness was for the glory of God.
Yes, it was painful for him and for his parents and others, but
his healing resulted in God receiving glory.
In the same way, the stillborn or short-lived newborn, brings
glory to God as the parents and family continue to trust or learn to trust God
and give testimony to His goodness despite this tragedy.
This in turn speaks to those outside the family who may need to
see this hope that exists despite what seems a hopeless situation.
It is when people see that hope does not reside in our
circumstances but in our God that they are able to see that their own hope must
rest in God and they may then be on the way to believing in Him for
salvation.
Peter said to always be prepared to give a reason for the hope
that is within you (1 Peter 3:15) and that is most likely to be required of
you when you face tragedy with hope in Him.
Unbelievers will want to know how that is possible and you will
have the answer.
Central
Church
is an independent evangelical church in Collierville, TN. When people in
our church ask questions we try to provide sound, quality answers that are true
to the Bible and thus, true to the character of God. The answers are
characteristically short without, hopefully, being incomplete or surface.
If you have a
question you are welcome to submit it and as we have time we will seek to give
you a response.
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