The Works of God

There's a lot going on in our lives right now.  Anyway, I've been doing a lot of thinking about why things happen and why we are the way we are.  This passage has really stuck out to me lately.

And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.  (John 9:1-3, emphasis added)

The last phrase hit me hard.  I thought about the things weighing on my mind.  Sometimes things happen because it is how the works of God are made manifest.  I have had two severely premature children, and nothing I did caused the premature births and  Clarissa's death.  They just happened.  I couldn't prevent them. 

Because of those events, there have been many, many works of God that have been made manifest in my life. While I do not care to relive my past and while I do not wish the pains and sorrows upon anyone else, I would not change them.  I am who I am because of these events.  I'm sure that blind man had many experiences that shaped him.  I'll bet at one point he thanked God for being blind.  I have been able to thank my Heavenly Father for some of my past sorrows, and I hope that one day I will be able to thank him for all of my pains and sorrows because of the woman who I will be because of the works of God that will have been made manifest in my life.