creative significance. This is a theme which is reiterated time and time again.19 Sometimes ‘cause’ and ‘purpose’ in suffering are displayed before the sufferer on the cosmic canvas, as in the Apocalypse of John. At other times, suffering itself is seen as an instrumental means whereby God in his sovereignty creates ‘goods’ in the life of the believer, some of which may be seen in this life, others only to be revealed in the next.20 But wherever this theme is touched upon—God working good out of