The question implies that God directly causes the extremely unfortunate situation where a child is abused by his/her parents. God does not cause this horrible situation to occur. This world and all of mankind is full of sin. Because there is sin, there is death and a multitude of other difficult experiences to endure. We know that because we sin, we must die. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) Before death though, we will all suffer different hardships. Child abuse is one of these hardships and is a sad reality in many people’s lives.
Apostle Paul speaks of the afflictions that God’s creation (the world of mankind) endures in Romans 8:22. He compares our suffering experiences to the pains of childbirth. “We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” The entire world, whether they know and believe in Christ or not, must go through tough experiences in this life here on earth. God allows us to go through these hardships. He allows us to experience life with sin, life without God.
Right now, God is permitting Satan to be the “god of this age,” and unfortunately the world is being blinded by Satan and sin. They cannot truly see what Christ means for the world (salvation!). “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” Colossians 4:4 The world does not understand the entire plan of God right now, but by going through our individual experiences, we will all come to realize the importance of having God’s rule in our lives. And when all come to this realization, they will choose God’s way of life with their own free will.
Does God care about us when we are suffering now? Yes, He does. I Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” Jesus cares about you. He “was moved with compassion…” for the people (Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 18:27, Mark 1:41, 6:34). Both God and Jesus love you and care about you. But God does not protect us from all pain, just as He permitted His own Son, Jesus, to experience suffering. If God is permitting our hard experiences, how does He want us to handle them? He wants us to grow through them.(2 Corinthians 6:4-10) He wants us to turn to Him and find His great steadfastness and love. For it is by suffering that we mature and develop the fruits of the spirit. (James 1, 2 Corinthians 7:10, 11).
We have a glorious future to look forward to. God has promised that a better time is coming when “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”(Revelation 21:4) Because God sent Christ to die and pay for our sins, we will all have the opportunity to be raised from the dead to live in God’s Kingdom.
While we may suffer painful lives now, and while some will have parents who abuse them and hurt them physically and emotionally, we can take comfort in knowing that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us completely. We are living in a “night of sin,” but a brighter future is in store for us. “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)
