Odds

I wonder today what the odds are of having a family of four with so many health issues. My dear one may have to have his gall bladder out this week or next, my little love has a chronic fever disorder, and here I am with my befuddled doctors and legion of symptoms.

A friend commented today that for a young family, we have a lot of health problems...I know it was simply an observation, but sometimes stating the obvious to people who are struggling is not helpful.

All things being random (or not as one sees the universe) it would make sense for pockets of health problems to pop up here and there, while other sections of the population would have none. Or one could see it as an issue of the spiritual breaking into the physical...Either unrepented sin coming back to haunt us, or the other side spiritual warfare erupting as a result of being one of God's warriors on earth. Or I suppose there would be the third option of circumstances divinely sent to try the servant and make him or her stronger...

I don't know what the answer is. I don't believe we are unrepentant sinners. I don't know that we are necessarily so great of warriors as to merit special attack by the forces of evil. I don't know that God sends us trials and temptations--although he certainly uses them to make us stronger, of that I have personal testimony.

So, I don't know what the odds are; if we are a statistical aberration, or if we fit the pattern. But if what I believe is true, odds are that from these trials will come growth if we choose to face them with grace and long-suffering (patience).