“Why did God make me this way?” It’s a question our children with disabilities and special needs are bound to ask us. Guest blogger Steve Siler knew the question was coming and thought about what he would say. Read on to find out what he said and to listen to a song he wrote to express his thoughts.

“Why did God make me this way?”

I knew the question would eventually come and I’d prayed about how I would answer it. When my seven-year-old son with Spina Bifida finally asked me that question one evening as I was helping him in the bathroom I gave him the only answer I could think of that was not a lie.

“I don’t know son.”

Of course, I could’ve gone into some theological rationalization and told him all about how God was going to use his infirmity to bless others; how truthfully, in fact, he already had—as hundreds prayed for Henry for the weeks and months leading up to his birth and through the four years of surgeries that had followed.

Somehow, though, I didn’t think that would bring him much comfort.

So I decided to sit with him in the question. I decided not to minimize his pain. I decided not to explain away his disease by making it some part of a gigantic cosmic puzzle that God was working.

I’ve come to believe that we who call ourselves Christians are too quick to come up with explanations at times like these. I’ve come to believe that we do not place enough value in the ministry of presence: Our own or God’s.

To read the rest of Why Did God Make Me This Way?, visit Steve’s website, Music for the Soul.

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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay