A one-year-old boy shattered his back falling down a flight of stairs. He spent his childhood and youth in and out of hospital. Gavin Read, the former Bishop of Maidstone, interviewed him in church. The boy remarked, ‘God is fair.’ Gavin asked, ‘How old are you?’ ‘Seventeen,’ the boy replied. ‘How many years have you spent in hospital?’ The boy answered, ‘Thirteen years.’ Gavin asked, ‘Do you think that is fair?’ He replied, ‘*God has got all of eternity to make it up to me*.’
We live in a world of instant gratification that has almost entirely lost its eternal perspective. The New Testament is full of wonderful promises about the future: all creation will be restored. Jesus will return to establish ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (Revelation 21:1). There will be no more crying, for there will be no more pain and suffering. Our frail, decaying mortal bodies will be changed for a body like that of Jesus’ glorious resurrected body.
Suffering is not part of God’s original created order (see Genesis 1–2). *There was no suffering* in the world before rebellion against God. *There will be no suffering* when God creates a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:3–4). Suffering is, therefore, *an alien intrusion* into God’s world. This, of course, is not a complete answer to the question ‘Why does God allow suffering?’ There is no simple or complete solution.
And that’s the Memo
By Nicky Gumbel
