Why Does God Allow Alzheimer's?

Back in 2011 I wrote a post entitled Where is God in Alzheimer's, and it remains a frequently visited selection all these years later.  We are blindsided by grief when something as devastating as an Alzheimer's diagnosis rocks our lives.

My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's fifteen years ago, and is still living. The comfort and encouragement I have to offer to those who are facing a new diagnosis of Alzheimer's for themselves or for a loved one is that God will make you a way through. Look for His path of comfort, provision, and encouragement, because it is there.  In any devastating event, He is present with us, and He makes us a way.

Today I've added a postscript to that 2011 post that I will also share here:  

The Lord is not the author of evil, and, in my comprehension, Alzheimer's disease is a great evil.  But I know without a doubt that in every challenge we face, even during the most difficult time, God  has made a path through it, and He is with us in it. With my limited and flawed understanding, I think that when God created the music of time and creation, He knew the melody must be allowed to play during this short segment during which human beings are allowed the choice of whether to come to Him as His children--or not.  We are not automatons and Satan exists, and so for this age, evil is present.  But God makes us a way through; He always makes us a way through, and from our Lord’s perspective, these present sorrows represent a very temporary situation.  He truly will bring everything together under the banner of His love; the process is underway now as all things are being drawn into His perfect will. Meantime, we are alright because we have confidence that someday He will make things all right, and He strengthens and sustains us in our here and now.  The Bible is full of promises that every tear will be wiped away and all things will, at the end of this age, come under the dominion of our God. 

I don’t think that Alzheimer's (or any other horrible thing) is caused exclusively by human free will and sin.  Evil is the culprit, evil is in the world, and, as Scripture says, God is allowing the wheat and the weeds to grow up together during this season.  Evil is a fact for now (and Alzheimer's is, in my book, a great evil) but at the end of all things God's perfect plan will be completed on earth as it is in Heaven, and all things will be brought together under one head; Christ (Ephesians 1:10).  And while we wait for that blessed day, we have the promise of His presence and provision in our here and now.  He will always make a way. 

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...I will make a pathway through the wilderness... 

--from Isaiah 43:13, NLT--