8. Pain, Suffering and the Individual

God has—and always has had—­redemptive plans of big enough scope to cover the whole of humankind's history up to and including the last generation, and extensive enough to reach to the bounds of the universe, the end of time, and on into eternity. But he is no less concerned for each individual in each generation. [p 136] [p 137] God's care for the individual Up to this point we have discussed the problem of pain and suffering largely in the context of the human race as a whole, and its relation to the earth, and, indeed, to the universe. That is inevitable. A great part of the problem is the natural disasters that occur on Planet Earth; and these things reoccur and affect far more than one individual, or even just one generation of humankind. Similarly diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart failure and many others have occurred all down the centuries as diseases common to humanity as a whole. While, then, great advances have been made in understanding and treating these diseases, any one individual sufferer at the present time must be prepared to recognise that hope for the final cure, or the eradication, of these diseases necessarily awaits future discoveries and developments; ...