I wrote this a day or two before your post.

There have been quite a few times I have been asked "If God is in control of everything and so loving why do so many bad things happen?" Well this is something I wanted to explore a little, because it is a very understandable question. Let's begin at he beginning. God created man and woman and blessed them with the power to procreate. We can see this from the passage below.

Genesis 1: 28
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Now when God created Adam he created him a living soul, as we can see in Genesis 2:7 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Now God put Adam in the garden of Eden and explained to him not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Further stating that on the day he ate of this fruit he would die (Genesis 2:16-17). Then God created Eve from Adam and at this time they were both living souls. Full of life and created in the image of God. So you can see God's intention was for them to replenish the earth through the law of procreation in the state they were created. From reading the passage of Genesis 2:16-17 we can deduce that at this point God has also given us the capacity to make choices. He told Adam not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and informed him of the consequence that would follow should he eat the fruit from this tree. We can now see three very important things from the information we have so far.

1) Man had been given the power to procreate
2) Man was made a living soul (in Adam was life)
3) Man had free will to make choices

Now that these three things have been established let's take a look at Genesis chapter 3 and what happened when the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was eaten, and God's response.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

So man was created in God's image and God had told Adam that on the day that he ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he would surely die. Eve even told the serpent that God said they would die. From reading this passage we see that the serpent played on a desire to be wise and lied saying that they would not die, but their eyes would be opened and they would be as gods knowing good and evil. Isn't it interesting how they were created in God's image and had all they needed, yet the serpent deceived them into believing that they were lacking something. Ever feel that way as a believer?

Genesis 3:8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

The first thing Adam and Eve did after eating the fruit was to hide themselves from the presence of the Lord. Why? Sin had entered into them. How do we know this? Adam was afraid, because of his nakedness. Fear is the byproduct of sin. We might also conclude from reading Genesis 2: 25 that shame had come as well. God called unto Adam and said "Where art thou?" I remember thinking about this question that God asked. Did God really not know where Adam was hiding? I came to the conclusion that God's intent by asking this was not meant to be a physical location but rather a question of identification. I believe God was asking, what happened, I can no longer identify with you. I created you in my image full of life, but I no longer find that life within you. Now let's see God's response.

Genesis 3:14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

God immediately speaks to the coming of Jesus in verse 15. God also spoke to both Adam and Eve of sorrow, and truly they be in sorrow for the life that was in them had past and they would live the rest of their days in darkness, sin had entered into the world. God told Eve as well in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. So we see that the sin nature would be passed down through the law of procreation for all generations to come. This is why Jesus had to be conceived by the Holy Spirit through the womb of a virgin, any child born through the union of a man and woman would inherit the nature of sin, being born into darkness. The death of the body is seen in verse 19. From this point God must banish them from Eden so they could not eat of the tree of life, perpetuating the life of their body.

Genesis 3:20 And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

In verse 21 God makes provision for Adam and Eve clothing them. In order to clothe them though animals had to be killed. This is significant because atonement was made only through the shedding of blood. So we can see God preaching the message of Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he would make for all men even in the beginning of humanity.

In conclusion, bad things happen because sin entered into the world and death by sin. It was not God's doing but man's doing. Many people would argue why did God allow Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. I would simply say that in His love for us He allows us to choose. It was not my choice to be born into this world full of sin, I inherited it. The love of God is that in spite of the choices Adam and Eve made, in spite of the bad choices and decisions I have made, He sent Jesus into the world to redeem us. People say that children are a gift from God. This is not biblical, children are the product of procreation. We say that if someone has a beautiful voice, it is a gift from God. What about the children born with birth defects, is that a gift from God? In john chapter 9 there is a passage about a man born blind from birth.

9:1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? 3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. 4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Meaning this. The man was born into a fallen race, some are born blind, some clubbed feet, withered hands and arms etc.. Some are born beautiful or handsome or with beautiful voices and wonderful talents but all are born into sin. However I (Jesus) have come to work the works of God and this work is going to be made manifest in the blind man that he might receive the love of God and be made to see! God does not cause people to be born with defects, just so He can come by and glorify Himself. Nor would He desire an adulteress to be stoned to death. He came to free all of us, whatever it is we suffer from.

Wonderfully explained. God is not in control of everything, He gave us dominion and control over the earth. (Psalm 115:16 & Psalm 8:3-6)

I will just point out this verse though, speaking about children being a gift from God.
Psalm 127:3 "Children are a gift from the Lord;
they are a reward from him." (NLT)

The blessing of children was the capacity to procreate. The beginning of Psalm 127 says "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain." This I believe is referring to children. As believers we can call upon our inheritance in the Lord to affect our children. None the less all children are born under the curse of sin. My point was that people, like the man born blind were born this way because of sin and not because God desired them to be born in this condition. The good news is that if sickness, disease or birth defects are the product of sin, we know that they can be undone. For Jesus destroyed the works of sin! So let us go on and work the works of God while it is day performing the works of God that Christ be glorified in us the same way Jesus glorified the Father and healed the blind man.

I understood your point that birth defects were not God's doing, and I fully agree with that. I also agree that Jesus glorified the Father through healing. You have a point that God gave us the capacity to procreate, and that is a blessing. Thanks for your perspective.