Mike, Don and List,
Just a brief addition to others' substantial comments:
IMHO, the universe was never intended to operate on an autonomous basis,
but in reliance on and humility before its Creator. As I know from 47
years of living with the effects of polio and my wife knows from a
recent broken leg, pain and limitations can produce an awareness of our
contingency. On the larger scale of reality, that is of more value than
the absence of pain.
All Creation testifies to God's greatness, as the movement of a glove
demonstrates the existence of the hand within. When the glove is worn
through or torn, however, the hand can be seen more clearly. Twenty-five
years ago, I directed a high school choir which performed the song
excerpted below (Sorry, I don't remember the old poet's name.):
Can I see another's woe
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another's grief
And not seek for kind relief?…
And can He who smiles on all,
Hear the wren with sorrows small,
Hear the small bird's grief and care,
See the woes that infants bear,
And not sit beside the nest,
Pouring pity in their breast?
Till our grief is fled and gone,
He doth sit by us and moan.
Dan Eumurian
B. Mus. in Mus. Ed.
M.A. in Theol. Studies
La Crosse, WI
hope4you@CenturyTel.net
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