The Purpose of Pain

"Behold, blessed is the man whom God punishes; therefore do not despise the correction of the Almighty. Because he is the one who makes the sore, and he will bandage it; he wounds, and his hands heal" (Job 5:17-18).

It is comforting to know that our sufferings are part of God's plan to shape our lives. According to the evaluations of this world, the fact that a God of love allows and executes situations of suffering on his children is incongruous. However, in the perfect and eternal wisdom of God, pain guided and controlled by his hands only seeks to perfect us, make us better people, mature Christians, obedient children.

Although it is hard to believe, the suffering he subjects us to seeks to free us from greater suffering. His pain seeks to free us from greater pain.

I have seen masters at work in the art of bonsai (those small plants grown in pots that often take on the appearance of hundred-year-old trees). They take the little tree in their hands; with appropriate instruments they cut branches, surround them with wires of different thicknesses and hardness, direct them according to a defined style or design, position them at angles and directions that totally change their appearance. They totally defoliate them many times; they take them out of their pots, cut their roots.

In short, they are subjected to a process that could be considered stressful or traumatic. And this process is repeated several times with each specimen for several years while they are forming it. But with the passage of time, over the years, that little tree becomes a masterpiece, worthy of admiration and amazement on the part of all those who contemplate it. Its beauty increases, and its value too. Something similar to that is God's treatment of us. (Pr. José R. Frontado / Venezuela).

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