I was visiting an aged sufferer, and only a short time before she passed away she beckoned to me to bend over her. In a faint whisper she said, “Can you explain to me the mystery of suffering?” She had suffered long and greatly, and close to eternity she leaves the question behind her, a question which God alone can solve in eternity.
I stood by another bedside — a dying man. He said, “Doctor, can you tell me how it is that good people have to suffer so much in this world?”
I said, “Will you tell me why the best, the only perfect Man who ever lived, was so pre-eminent in suffering, that He was called ‘The Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief’? Answer this and your question will be answered.”
A little child was under my care suffering from pneumonia. She had passed through weary, restless nights and painful days. Listen to what she says: “It is gentle Jesus makes me suffer this, but He does not mean any harm by it.”
She had solved in her own simple childish trust the problem that has puzzled many. Although she might not understand why she should suffer, she knew “gentle Jesus” could do no wrong.
She said also, “If gentle Jesus were to come in at that door I should run to Him, and put my arms around His neck, and kiss Him.” I gave her a little picture book from a friend, and she wanted to know if it was about “gentle Jesus.” Yes, blessed Lord, “Out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s Thou halt perfected praise.”
The mystery of suffering began at the fall of man; sin and sorrow became inseparable then. This problem of the ages will be solved when “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things have passed away.” “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
There were no tears until sin came into the world, and in that sinless home all tears will be wiped away. Jesus wept over the sin He taketh away.