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Be Not Afraid sufferingcontinually short of breath. By the time she enteredadolescence, she was wheelchair-bound.Then came the biggest blow of all, when she was justfourteen: her mother’s suicide. Miriam herself died attwenty-eight, by which time she had undergone at leastfifteen operations, been hospitalized more than fortytimes, and suffered hundreds of fractures.Throughout her short life, Miriam’s personalityremained largely free of the burdens placed on her byher medical condition. In fact, she reminded one of asparrow – small, spunky, cheerful. This was true atthe end of her life, too: though she struggled for everybreath, she was indomitable. When nothing morecould be done for her medically, she said, through heroxygen mask, “Well, I think I’m ready. I only have a fewmore thank-you notes to write.”Can a lifetime of suffering like Miriam’s, or adebilitating illness of any length, ever represent God’swill? If we claim it cannot, we are faced with a certaintension. After all, the New Testament tells us of peoplelike a man whose blindness was caused “so that Godmight be glorified,” and that it was God’s will that Jesusshould suffer and die. On the other hand, because theBible is so full of passages that speak of God’s power toheal and save and give life, it seems incomprehensiblethat sickness and death should still exist at all.10