Suffering

26th Nov 21 - God

Rev dear Rev: What is the purpose of God creating the universe if little children have to suffer so much?

This question comes from Sandy Beds, the local RSPB reserve near Grantchester. Anyway, we could respond to this question with some macro-cosmic comments on the general universe, since very interestingly it assumes an ongoing doctrine of continuous creation in time, a very up to date thesis, but a little like Oscar Wilde's precious little book in 1899, his pretiosissimum opusculum The Soul of Man Under Socialism, wherein he advanced the thesis that some Socialism might be needed here and there in different countries chiefly because only a national government can get things done on a large humanitarian scale, responding to the Q-Anon above, it might be more just and more honest to respond devotionally to this question. God loves his little children, and if he allows some to suffer and die and go to his kingdom, it is only because he loves them and foreseeing their difficult conditions of their nation ahead of time, he sometimes wishes to preserve them from the future corruption and besmirching and reduction and eventual loss of their souls as might befall them in a horrible evil human homeworld, so that is why he sometimes allows a few of them to come to him early in their lives. It is not an evil except for a few emotional French philosophers in exile in the South Sea islands, raised on a daily diet of exceeding beauty and comfort, on which it is possible to become drunk and lose one's immortal soul; rather it is a fruit of God's genuine long term care and love for his children. Only adult humans love this world so irrevocably that they would forego eternal paradise for it, but they are foolish to trust so in this world's gifts. God has a different plan for some of his children that he especially loves. For more on this spiritual way of self-abnegation and retreat from the blandishments of this corrupt world, try to read Thomas A Kempis's book, The Imitation of Christ, especially chapter eight and following. Thank you for a lovely spiritual question.