Yesterday I was talking to my wife about how it is disappointing that some people enter into failed relationships/marriages that could have been avoided. Yet it is often the case that a child comes from that relationship/marriage that would not have come to be had it not been for the misstep. For instance, both my grandmother and mother married men who really struggled as husbands forever altering the outcome of their (my grandmother and mother) lives. While I wish that they could have married someone else so their lives would have been better it must be said that, in some sense, I must be grateful for their “mistake” (if it can be called such a thing).

Without my grandmother and grandfather reproducing my mother and my mother and father reproducing me there would be no “I” as “I” know it…or would there?

Is there any sense in which I would have been I? I don’t see any possibility since this is genetic, but it is an interesting question to ask.

From another angle, if God wanted me to be on this planet for his purpose did God have a hand in my grandmother and mother choosing less than quality men? Is God’s mercy of being given to me only possible by his allowing of relationships that negatively impacted the lives of others?

Would I be I any other way?