From a netfriend:

I often think of the Matthean story of Jesus’ birth. Jesus’ childhood is there overshadowed by Herod’s attempt to slaughter him as a child. Now that’s a bloody awful Christmas! However, this becomes the opportunity for Jesus to retrace the history of Israel.

Someone else who comes to mind is the great Renaissance mathematician and astronomer, Johanne Kepler. It was Kepler who published how the planets orbit the Sun and who showed exactly how they do, one year before Galileo tried to assert the claim. Today Kepler is known as the “Father of Celestial Mechanics”. BUT Kepler’s childhood was anything but easy. He grew up in a house of constant domestic violence. Unperturbed, he turned into one of the world’s greats. In fact, his experience of aggressive, violent parents probably stood in his stead. Years later he had to extract important data from the arrogant and aggressive Dane, Tycho Brahe. Brahe was a Danish noble who grossly violated people’s human rights, imprisoning families in defiance of the king of Denmark. He was also a violent brawler who had lost the bridge of his nose in a duel. But Kepler knew how to deal with this arrogant and violent man and got the data out of him so that he could move the world forward in understanding. In the right hands, early wounds can be turned into life’s gifts. This is not to deny the evil of those wounds, but rather to testify to the majesty of a God who can turn a wound into a strength.