I believe that God allows us to get sick so we learn to realize that with no God it could be worse. I am the second daughter of a breast cancer victim. Mom died in 1987. My sister was 17 and I was 12. We blamed God for many years, "How could our creator hurt us by taking the person we were closest to?" My father was diagnosed with a rare nerve disease, Guillian Bere Syndrome, within nine months of Mom's death. My sister started college in the fall of 1988 and I went to live with my mother's parents. My father was sent to Iron Mountain, Michigan, to the Veteran's Hospital until he was able to function on his own. I believe God gave him the strength to get well enough to come home to me. There is much more to the story.
When I was diagnosed with Crohn's, I had to tell my father over the phone so he would hear it from me and not someone else in our family. I remember the silence from his end. After the long pause, I said, "Dad, you did NOT give me this. Buppa (my mother's father) had Crohn's disease and Nannie (my mother's mother) had Ulcerative Colitis. This did NOT come from your side of the family." I heard a sigh of relief, then he went on to tell me he had worried because his family has so many rare diseases. I joked that since Buppa had Crohn's and Nannie had Colitis, one of us (meaning their six grandchildren) were bound to get one of them. :) He feels bad that I have it, and that it did come from mom's side of the family, but he was definately relieved that it did not come from him. My father's life is a great example of how God is there for us even when we think we are alone. He has faced so many hardships in his life, yet he believes in God and talks with his mother about God. Dad was turned off of organized religion when he was a kid. It is too long to tell.
When I am asked why I believe in God and Jesus, I tell my story. My Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was in third grade. They removed her breast, but they did not get it all. It then spread to her liver through her blood. I was in fifth grade when they diagnosed her with liver cancer. I remember we had just learned about successful transplants in our Weekly Reader in school. I told my mom that she could have my liver. (I would do it again if I could.) I was VERY serious. She of course told me no, because I would then die. I told her that I didn't care because the way I saw it was that Mom was a great Mom and she could have more children. I thought my father and sister needed her more than me, so I felt that I was the replacable one. The connection to God and Jesus here is; if I can love my mother enough to willfully die for her, why then is it so hard for people to believe that our brother willfully died for us, and our father was willing to offer his son for us?. This is just why I believe.
My sister and I have actually become stronger believers in God and Jesus because of the hardships our parent faced and the ones we faced ourselves. Illness has just become a part of existance in our family. Many of us have health issuses. God helps us get through the bad days and enjoys the good days with us as well.
I am sorry that I give too much detail. I hope that someone else can benefit from my experiences.