This is what I have spent so much time thinking about today. Papa gave me a hint toward the answer. He said it had to do with the many different colors of roses and also something to do with you falling off your horse! It made no sense to me for the longest time.

But I started thinking of the garden—oh, Matthew, you should see the late bloomers now! I thought of the many different varieties of roses. Why did God make so many different kinds and colors? Wouldn’t one kind of rose be enough for him? But no, he made dozens and dozens of roses, all different colors and varieties. And I began to think that he makes people like that too. People are like roses. We come in different sizes and shades and colors, and we have different personalities. Why would God make us so very different?

And then I understood something new: God likes that we are different. That’s why he made us this way! He likes you because you are Matthew and not like anyone else. He likes me because I am unique too. And my papa and my mama and everyone—we are all different and special! He likes our differences, and he doesn’t want us all to be the same or do the same things even.

I think that’s what Papa had in mind when he gave me the hint about the roses. But it took me a while longer to understand what you falling off your horse had to do with God and the bad things in the world.

But it finally did come to me. Matthew, your falling off the horse was a terrible thing. Maybe not as terrible as some things that are going on in the world today, but it was a bad thing even so, and it hurt you. So why did God let that happen? Why did God let you be hurt? He could have kept you from climbing onto the Belgian. He could have kept the two of us from riding horses at all. He could have made us stay inside where it was safe.

But if he did that—don’t you see?—then he isn’t letting us be us! He would be controlling us like little puppets. He doesn’t want that. Just as he likes different varieties of roses, he likes people to be different too—people who make their own choices about what they do and who they are!