Steal, Kill, and Destroy?

I have written previously of our young friend dying of cancer.  In the wake of what has been a particularly difficult week for their family, unanswered questions torture their souls.  Why do some people have four healthy kids while we have just this one...and he's so sick?  Why does it feel like God is healing everyone else's child while turning a blind eye to ours?  Why?  Why?  Why?  These questions are so perplexing because every time we see a sick person in the Bible crying out to Jesus for healing, he does it.  I can't find a single example where Jesus turns a deaf ear or a blind eye to someone crying out for help.  He was full of compassion and love.  Even Lazarus, who died, Jesus eventually raised from the grave.  Why isn't there an example where Jesus says to a friend, "I'm sorry.  I just won't do it. "

I was thinking about these questions myself and talking them over with my husband one night after the kids had gone to bed.  As I was pondering the implications, this is the verse that came into my heart:  "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full"  (John 10:10).  This horrible cancer is doing all those things--stealing the very breath from his body, killing vital organs, and destroying healthy cells day by day.   Quite obviously, Jesus did not mean "life" as you and I know it.  Otherwise, he would certainly intervene and perform a miracle right here. We were praying for it, begging for it.

I began to think, "Maybe 'life to the full' doesn't necessarily mean a physically healthy life.  Intellectually, I've known this all along, but experiencing first-hand what seems to be deafening silence from God was a realization that was hard to swallow.  I had to follow up my study with this verse found in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17:  "Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."  That's God's desire for our lives--eternal glory that surpasses anything we could imagine here on earth.  And that's something that, try as he might, Satan will NEVER be able to steal, kill, or destroy.