If God is good, why is there so much suffering?

This is probably one of the hardest questions Christianity faces.

Christianity doesn’t ask us to pretend suffering isn’t terrible.

Some suffering clearly comes from human beings. War, violence, exploitation, cruelty, environmental damage and countless everyday choices hurt other people. Christianity teaches that human beings have genuine moral freedom. The freedom that makes love, courage and generosity possible also makes hatred, selfishness and violence possible.

But that doesn’t explain everything. A child becoming seriously ill isn’t adequately explained by saying “free will.” Neither is an earthquake.

Christianity describes something bigger: the world itself is not presently as it was meant to be. The Bible describes creation as damaged and awaiting restoration.

That doesn’t mean Christians know why God allows every individual tragedy. We don’t. And Christianity shouldn’t pretend otherwise.

Instead, Christianity makes an extraordinary claim about what God does in response to suffering. He enters it. Jesus experiences grief, rejection, injustice, betrayal, physical suffering and death. The Christian picture isn’t of a God safely watching human suffering from a distance. It’s of a God who steps into it.

Christianity therefore doesn’t promise an explanation for every tragedy. It promises that suffering isn’t meaningless to God, that He can bring good even from terrible circumstances, and ultimately that suffering and death will not have the final word.