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My friend, who is skeptical about Christianity, often wonders why God allows that healthy parents give birth to unhealthy children. He comments that Jesus' miracles do not occur that often these days. How should I respond to his question?

It is not God's will for the children to be born unhealthy; but because He is beneficent, He changes inflictions to their benefits and the benefits of all humanity. We have learned profound lessons from many innocent people who had had to endure great burdens and ordeals, but had been compensated with extraordinary abilities that God had granted them. Helen Keller was deaf and blind by the age of two and was unable to communicate. Through the dedication of a unique teacher, she became a college graduate, an author, and a catalyst for the rights of people with disabilities. Mattie Stepanek, a young, critically disabled child who became a celebrated author of beautiful poetry about world peace recently and who died at age eleven. He gained more dignity and touched more lives than people who did not have any apparent limitations and lived to be in their nineties. The truth of the matter is that the criterion of our God's generosity is not even dependent on one's faith. Sometimes God's interventions appear peripheral, but to the faithful, His mercies are always obvious and apparent. In the lesson of the man born blind, we see the power and glory of God the Creator, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our God's splendid presence is evident in every person's challenge and ability to overcome that challenge. One may not see, but can walk, sing, write, etc. People are quick to blame God for an individual's disabilities and injustice in the world. However, the same people shun the idea of glorifying God for the many talents and abilities He freely bestows and His generous and tender mercies He grants to every individual. What He requires of us as Christians is to share His love with the world by helping others to reach their full potential and so to live a righteous life.

Excerpt from the Second Absolution of the Morning Prayer: "O God Who causes the light to burst forth, Who lets His sun shine upon the righteous and the wicked, Who created the light which illuminates the whole world, enlighten our minds, our hearts, and our understandings, O Master of all, and grant us to please You this present day."