One of the beautiful things about Christianity is its philosophy of suffering. In a culture that far to often shakes its fist at God and demands answers to His supposed crimes, to suffer with joy is a rare find, but when a glimpse is caught of the hands reaching upward, willing to love and trust that God is good in His sovereignty, it silences the attackers.

I have watched people suffer in my own life over this past month. I watched a friend give birth at 21 weeks, too early to save her precious son. I watched her and her husband weep and my heart broke with them. I watched them worship the very Christ that took their son from them. I heard them proclaim that He is good. I had a friend who has been unable to conceive and doctors have been unable to help. In a final attempt, they failed to get pregnant. I cried with her over her unfulfilled dreams. I heard her praise God for His kindness and mercy.

This is the promise that we have in Christ - that we will suffer, but that unlike the suffering of this world, ours is redeemed. Every tear we shed becomes a gem at the feet of our Savior where it shines brighter and clearer than a diamond in the hot, desert sun, that is richer and deeper than the reddest ruby or bluest sapphire. Those jewels will be placed in our crown at Christ's return and those crowns will be placed at His feet because it was He who apportioned our pain and caused us to persevere through it. Suffering happens because as a collective whole, humanity has sinned against God. While there are consequences to our actions, I don't believe in one for one suffering - in other words, just because something terrible befalls someone, doesn't mean they did something to deserve it. Instead, I believe that as a whole, humanity fell in the Garden of Eden and that suffering entered this world and we now, collectively endure suffering. Christ redeemed that pain.

In Genesis, Joseph says to his brothers that which they meant for evil, God meant for good. I heard Pastor John once say that it isn't that God comes along after the fact and decides to swing things to the positive - no, God from before time, designed the pain and meant it for good. We are the ones, who in our short-sightedness and our limited view that think we are doing something for evil.

This post is a little more incoherent, I think. I had trouble sleeping and this was on my mind. No one knows about this blog, but me. So I suppose I'm writing this down because I know pain will come into my life and I want to have words to remind me of the Gospel and the promises that God has given me through Jesus.