If God is so powerful, why does evil exist? This is a question of the ages. It goes hand-in-hand with so many other queries that question why life is not perfect. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people? Why is there death, destruction, and so much suffering? The list is infinite.
The title of Lynn Anderson's country song, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, comes to mind. Even if we had been promised a rose garden, we would have to remember that for all the brilliance and sweet aromas, roses are covered with thorns. Perhaps, a rose garden is exactly what God gave us.
God never promised us a perfect world. His being powerful has nothing to do with it.
God put the world in motion and gave us free will. He wants us to make the right choices and the right decisions. He wants us to learn and grow spiritually. This earth is a learning place and a testing ground for the fulfillment of God's promise of everlasting life. We must learn our lessons well, and, most of the time, the hard way. If it were not for adversity, we would not be challenged. If it were not for evil, we would not see good or strive for good.
God is our spiritual father - the father of our spiritual being. We are God's children. The relationship between God and his children can be glimpsed in the relationship that our earthly bodies have with our earthly mothers and fathers, if our earthly parents are doing a good and proper job.
Consider the role of the earthly parent. You bring a child into this world. The love you feel is without bounds and without description. If you are a good parent, you know that you must teach your child, that your child must learn, and that the journey will be filled with good and bad experiences. You would like to build a room with padded walls and floors, furniture made of plush foam, and filled with nothing but happiness and comfort. You would like put your child in there and lock the door so nothing sad, bad, or hurtful can ever get near that child. You have the power to do that, but you know that will only hurt your child in the long run. You can see for miles into the future and you know that your child needs tools to live a happy life and rules to live a safe life.
So, your child begins to crawl, pull up, and walk. You spend most of your time chasing after him and snatching him up just before he hits the coffee table, or trips over the dog, or runs headlong into the glass door. Then the day comes when he bangs into the coffee table, trips over the dog, and runs headlong into the glass door. Maybe, he gets a cut, or scratch, or bruise. Maybe, he cries. You scoop him up in your arms and you hug him. You fix the boo-boo. But then, you let him do it all over again. You have the power to stop all of this, but you don't because you know he has to learn. For the next decade or so, most of your sentences will start with "Don't" and end with "or you will get hurt". Don't .... run so fast, jump so high, ride your bike up that hill, skateboard in that old swimming pool, jump into the shallow end of the pool, run into the street ... or you will get hurt. As the adult, you have the vision and the wisdom to see far enough into the future to see what could happen. You also have the power to stop all of it. Do you? Not if you are a good parent. You teach, preach, make rules, set limits, and talk until you are blue in the face, but you let him make choices and experience life. Then the teen years come when he is testing the waters at full tilt. You let him drive, date, play sports. Are you crazy? You have the power to stop it all. If you are a good parent, you don't. These life lessons are vital. Then the day comes when you send him off to college, or help him move into his own place where he sets off to follow his own dreams. You have had your chance to teach and control. Now, you must step back. But, are you ever very far away?
Of course not. He can call you any time of the day or night. You will always be there - no matter what. Your love is unconditional. Your support is unending and never ceasing. You will do for him whatever is humanly possible and when it is not humanly possible, you will hold him in your arms, comfort him, cry with him and your heart will break for him.
During his young life you were the cause of some of his suffering. How many times did you say, 'no' when he wanted something that you knew was not good or right for him. How many times did he beg? Yet, you did not relent - even when he said that he would hate you forever. How many times did you take him to the doctor or the dentist when physical pain was inflicted on him and he did not understand why you would do such a thing to him. How many times did you take him to, some variation of, the 'woodshed' because all else had failed. You had the power to have stopped all of this.
God's relationship with His children is the basically the same. His love is greater, deeper, stronger and more enduring than the human is capable of understanding. His choices are more difficult and His pain is much greater when we are hurt and suffering. His job as our parent is not to put us in a padded room of safety, but to give us guidance, help, comfort and love as we struggle on our spiritual journey.