Why God lets things happen to us

I think the most insightful thin about Christianity I've seen on a movie came from the secular movie "Finding Nemo". Nemo's father, Marlin, promised his son he would never let anything happen to him. Marlin and Nemo's friend, Dorian, told Marlin "That's quite a strange thing to promise. If nothing ever happens to him, nothing would ever happen to him...(pause)....not much fun for little Groucho (Nemo. She has short-term memory loss and can't seem to recall Nemo's name) " And that got me thinking about all the things God has let happen to my family. Well just in the past couple of years, My husband collapsed and we were afraid he might die, then I collapsed and we were afraid I might die, and we lost our home, and our eldest son became depressed and seriously contemplated suicide, and my mother-in-law became depressed and seriously contemplated suicide, and my husband became permanently disabled. This was all in the space of two weeks or so. And we didn't know it at the time, but also at this time a teenage girl had turned up pregnant and claimed our eldest son (a virgin) was the father. She was one year older than him. Anyway, if my husband hadn't collapsed, we would have been in town when the girl claimed our son was the baby's father. It's a small town and the social repercussions would have been a nightmare. Our eldest son would have committed suicide. If I hadn't collapsed, I would have called our landlords and told them we'll be gone for a few weeks but we'll send the rent and we will return. If I had made that call, we wouldn't have lost our home. If we hadn't lost our home, we would have returned to that small time and that social nightmare, and our eldest son would have committed suicide. We wouldn't have had to move in with my mother-in-law, and no one would have noticed in time, that the Chantix she was taking to quit smoking, was making her suicidal over the loss of her husband . She was seeing hallucinations and they were telling her to kill herself to be with him. I wouldn't have been there to urge her to talk to her doctor and she wouldn't have quit taking Chantix. She would have committed suicide. Five months after this had all happened, we were living in a new (to us) home of our own, a better home in a better community to raise our kids. Our eldest son was no longer depressed, nor was my mother-in-law. she had gained back 10 pounds of the 40 pounds she had lost since her husband had died, and his grades were improved in the better school he was in. the girl in the town we left behind had given birth and the real father ( the same age as herself) had stepped forward wanting to be a part of the baby's life (wherein it was discovered that she had the two teenage boys' names confused with each other). My husband is still disabled and I still wonder how this could be a blessing. But I no longer think its a curse. Everything that has happened to us has been a blessing, I just don't know yet how my husband's disability is a blessing. It says in the Bible that if we ask for anything in God's name it will come to pass, but when I picture myself asking God " Please don't let anything happen to my family", I hear Dorian's voice in my mind remarking "That's a funny thing to ask... if nothing ever happens to your family, nothing would ever happen to your family" And then an odd thing happened last week. I wonder how it, too , will be revealed to have been a blessing. But that's a testimonial for another time.

Wow... bad things happen in life but what the devil meant for evil God can turn it around for good. Jesus is our healer and I believe He will heal your husband. God bless

Thank you and God Bless you too.

I would also like to add that because these things happened, God was able to use them to answer my eldest son's prayers for his emotional pain to be healed, and my prayers for him to succeed in school. Just this past week my eldest son told me that God has answered all his prayers, which came as a surprise to me because he had been contemplating being an atheist.

The reason why I didn't title this thread "Why does God let bad things happen to us" , really the most commonly asked question about God, is because this question pre-supposes that we, as humans, are qualified to know when what has happened to us is good or bad. God sees the big picture and he knows the whole sequence of events, all the causes and effects, all the possible futures. All we see if the one linear timeline looking backwards and only a small view of that.

I use to question God about my whole life, which I felt was always terrible.I stopped doing that and just decided to accept it as that is how it was.He has humbled me through those experiences, as painful as they were.I learned a whole lot of things thinking back I't was in the pit of Despair that I first read the bible.Through my abandonment I was brought to the light.I have gained strength from all my pain as well as compassion.I can say, I say all the bad things has taught me a lot.