God Is Not Like the Father of Pinocchio

I was talking with a group of children at a church in Dayton, Ohio when one little boy asked, "Why does God make children with birth defects?" I answered, "I don't think that God makes children to be born with birth defects."

God is not like Gepetto, the father of Pinocchio. God is not a puppet maker nor a sculptor. God does not decide to carve out some people with crippling birth defects and then make them come alive. Let us remember that God commanded the Earth to bring forth plants, birds, fish and animals, in which is their own seed. God gave the Earth and mother nature the freedom and power to procreate life. Most of the time the biological birth process works miraculously. But nature is not perfect.

I just finished writing a children's story entitled "Benjamin's Dog Joseph. It is based on a true story about a dog, born with a short stub leg, who saved a boy's life in a drowning accident near Springfield, Massachusetts. Since I began to share this story I have heard about all kinds of three legged animals including dogs, cats, goats, calves, pigs, and horses. Some of them became three legged animals through accidents, but not all of them. Some of them, like Joseph, were born with such birth defects. This proves that all kinds of creatures in nature are born with birth defects, not just people.

I was born with a rare and progressive neurological disease which has caused the loss of vision, makes walking very difficult and causes chronic pain. But I do not think that God planned to make me this way, nor do I think that he knit me together wrong on purpose. God is no more responsible for making me this way than my earthly parents are - and they certainly did not intend for me to come out this way.

Now you may be asking, "So, where is God in all this?"

The Bible states that God is a Spirit. It also says that God is love. I believe that God is there. I do believe that like my earthly parents, God loves me, in spite of my imperfections. I believe that God knows who I am and what is happening to me and that He is willing and able to help me overcome the circumstances of my birth. He shows the same kind of love His children.





Dr. Greene is an ordained minister of the United Church of Christ and a resident of Richmond, IN. He is also the author of Feeling Better: The Wisdom of the Doc, You Can Feel Better: How to cope with chronic pain and physical disabilities, and co-author of Walking Free: the Nellie Zimmerman Story.


For further information about his books, please visit www.densmorereid.com

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