Faith in the face of aging and illness

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1998.

In light of all that your long letter tells about the present stage of your illness, it is impressive to see how your faith in the love and power of God remains undimmed. As I grow older, I have come to be more and more helped by thinking upon God's loyalty to us as our creator.

Of course, if we knew nothing of his love in redemption, his creatorial power might well leave us perplexed when we observe the brokenness everywhere evident throughout creation. But in light of the fact that, in the person of Christ, God has entered into and shared the suffering of his creatures, and indeed has suffered more than any of them individually, or all of them put together, we can trust also in his loyalty to us as our creator.

Parents who would bring children into the world and then not be loyal to them, but neglect and abandon them, would be judged by us to be morally deficient; but God is certainly not thus morally deficient. He is, as 1 Peter 4:19 declares, 'a faithful Creator'. He will be loyal to all that he has created. He has not made us to be mere toys for him to play with, and then thrown out when they become broken or cease to amuse him. Calvary declares that he will be loyal to his creatures who put their trust in him, and will preserve them eternally, even though it costs him the blood of his Son.

Your faith under suffering is both a testimony and an example to all your fellow believers who know you.

Affectionately yours in Christ,