Blaming God: "Who Took My Baby?"

As we go through the questions of the Bible study on "Spiritual Warfare", she rustles the pages with impatience, unable to find verses as quickly as the others, her face darkens.
"I don't know nothing about the Bible," She says finally, glaring at me, expecting who knows what kind of response. "I haven't been sober in eight years.  I'm tired of coming to jail.  I'm tired of this kind of life."

"That's why you're HERE," another one tells her.  "We invited you to bible study because you're tired of that life..."

"Well what's God going to do about it," she wants to know.  "I don't even trust God...he's the one who took my baby.  He's the one who took my father..."

"Why would God take your baby?" I ask  "Do you think God is evil?"

"Well,no...well, yes a little."

"Because to take your baby, something you love,  from you --- someone intentionally trying to hurt you...that someone would be evil, right?"

"Right."

"So you'd have to think  God is evil to take your baby.  You'd have to think that God is someone who doesn't want the best for you, who wants to hurt you."

"Right."  but she is not so certain now, now that her fears are out in the open. 

"But honestly, I don't see it that way.  All I see when I look at God is pure love."

"So who took my baby?"

It's the question we all ask.  Who took my baby -- my happy marriage -- my lucrative job -- my health -- my bank account?  Who took the only thing I had that made me feel important or secure?

What's the deeper question?  Why am I suffering? Why is this world so painful? Why can't I have what I want?    Is it because of our fallen world, sin-sick and wounded?  Is it because God wants us to learn reliance on Him?  Is it Satan and his minions messing with us, tempting us to sin even more?

I have friends who argue that God does what He wants.  Yes, God took your baby because He had a greater purpose in all of the events of your life.  Look, it brought you here, didn't it?   I have friends who say that Satan is the father of sin, sickness, and death -- this is his dominion and he's calling the shots. I have friends who believe that God stands outside the box once the start button has been pushed on our lives:  every occurrence is a consequence of our behavior from the beginning.  We do it to ourselves. 

Every answer reflects a different view based on their own learning and experience.  I imagine that some would answer:  There is no God.  Stuff just happens.

I can say only this:  There is a God. Of this I have no doubt.  Babies die.  People die.  Nothing is permanent.  The woundedness inside this Tough Woman goes so far beyond the death of her baby that I can't even begin to count her sorrows.  She is at the starting point with God.  I can't wait to see where He takes her. This is the joy of my life -- to introduce wounded people to the Healer.

"God, this is Lisa.  Lisa, this is God."

"Oh yes," He says, "We've already met..."