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'Mama, why is there so much pain and sorrow and suffering? What is it all for?

'It is for our good, my child. In His wisdom and mercy the Lord sends us these afflictions to discipline us and make us better ... None of them comes by accident.'

'Isn't it strange? ... Did He give Billy Norris the typhus?'

'Yes.'

'What for?'

'Why, to discipline him and make him good.'

'But he died, mama, and so it couldn't make him good.'

'Well, then, I supposed it was for some other reason ... I think it was to discipline his parents.'

'Well, then, it wasn't fair, mama ... he was the one that was punished ... Did He make the roof fall in on the stranger that was trying to save the crippled old woman from the fire, mama?'

[Mark Twain's Little Bessie Would Assist Providence]

[note: sometimes, the pain and suffering is just THIS absurd]

[blackpaintbrush.org]