For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
bonnie tribbitt
So you'll get strong in the lord (James 1:2-4).
Kimberly M
Yes but I never understood why God brings a child into this world with disabilities? A newborn hasn't even sinned. So why is this innocent allowed to suffer by God. I've always had a hard time with this. Can anyone give insight or help passages on this with links ~ thanks
Justin Hawkins
I would add a couple of thoughts to your question. First the Bible tells us that we are born into sin. No one is innocent even from birth. The second thing I would add is that people are born with disabilities to bring God glory. When the disciples asked Jesus who sinned this man or his parents that he was born blind he tells them it was neither. It was to bring God glory that he was born blind.
Terry Gillard
How would a loving God correct the pain (physical or mental) that an innocent goes through?
1. By healing? Healing is only necessary after the hurt. The hurt would still be there.
2. By removing the sufferer from the situation? All I read in the Bible shows me He would love to do that - but is unable because all the hurt and sickness is a result of man's sin. The innocent (and I believe they are there - e.g 2 yr old baby) is still surrounded by nations of sinful-hearted people.
3. By taking the affliction - whether a human bully or a disease away from the sufferer? The same answer as 2.
As mighty as He is, he cannot interfere in men's lives in this general way: BUT (and thank God there is always a but!) God so loved this world - the sufferers, the afflicters of deep distress, you and I, - that He gave His only Son that we may experience forgiveness - or deliverance if we need it!
People say "Why does God allow..." for many areas in life: The answer is, and always is, and always will be Jesus.
Danny Hickman
No other creature says to God, 'Why did you make me this way?' Only the creature made in the image of God even thinks of that. That's the reason mankind comes up with that sort of self-importance.
"Made in the image of God," in plainer language means to be a representation of the likeness of God. Since God is Spirit and spirit is immaterial, being made in the image of God has nothing to do with a physical representation, but is centered on the theological likeness of God and man.
What theological likeness have we to God?
There is only one God. There are many idols made idols by men, but there is only one God. That makes God holy; He's set apart from everything else in existence.
There is also only one man. God set us apart from all of His other creatures and creations. Therefore we are naturally holy also, set apart as the only living creatures who worship and acknowledge God as God. That places us in the category of being in the "likeness" of God; we are uniquely holy. There is only one species of mankind, not spoken into existence but physically fashioned by God.
That's my take on what being created in the image of God means. We are nothing like God in any aspect that has to do with attitude, orientation or disposition. There's nothing in the Genesis story of man, prior to him falling from grace through sin, that suggests that he was anything like God in character.
Our "likeness" is our uniqueness as living beings who have a knowledge of the Creator.