Why does God allow the Evil of illness and death?

A couple weeks back I posted about why God lets bad things happen to good people ("Could God make a rock so big he couldn't move it?"). I spoke mostly of natural disasters. I thought about illness but wanted to save that for another time. This is that time.

I just happen to be reading the book, “The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot. It’s non-fiction, a story that really happened about Henrietta, a woman who died of cancer and the type of cancer she had was so virulent that her cells have continued to grow and are being used decades after her death in experiments to create new drugs.

One of my favorite movies is “Meet Joe Black” in the movie an old woman dying says something to the effect of “life is about getting enough pretty pictures”. I honestly believe that. We’re all going to die someday, life isn’t about where it ends up it’s about what we do with it and the effect it has on the world after we’re gone.  Henrietta’s friends and family described her as a generous loving person willing to work hard to protect and feed those she loved, which included a great many distant relatives. She was African American in the days of segregation and she was uneducated. The effect she had on the masses during her life wasn’t of a huge consequence. I can imagine her wanting to be more and she got her wish. Many many many drugs have been made and are being made today with the study of her cells. She meant a great deal in the scheme of things. I think she would be proud of her sacrifice, she’s affected more lives than most of us ever will.

Her children on the other hand had a hard time after her death. Many of them were young when she died and without their mother they didn’t have much protection from people who victimized them, often people in their own family. But our unwillingness to let that stand for future generations is what makes God proud of our development as his children. Like Hercules, being given the twelve trials, we’ll only become what we are meant to with challenge. And as in the book, The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, God will give us the strength to deal with the bad times.

Sometimes it’s not always obvious when death has a positive effect on the living. The hurting is too great to see anything good. As a Christian I can see death as an end to toil for the person God is taking home. That person is now in a happier place in perfect relationship with God. But life on earth still goes on and death affects it no matter what we do. I know it’s fiction, but I don’t think it’s hard to imagine something like what happened in the movie, “The Descendents” happening to a family, where death makes a bond stronger between the people left behind. Relationships are important. They are important to God and he will do what he can to make sure we nurture ours. So when someone’s end comes, think not of the dead but “what can I do for the living?”