What I tell my kids about Healing

God is the Healer...

All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Rom.3:23)
The wages of sin is death. (Rom. 6:23)
It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment. (Hebrews 9:27)

So from the moment we're born, we're on a road toward death. It's every person's lot. But still, when we're hurt or get sick, many times we recover. Why is this, when the sin in our bloodline has marked us for the grave?

Isaiah 53:5 "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed."

This means that because Jesus paid our penalty, He miraculously heals people all the time from horrible pain and sickness. People have even been raised from the dead.

It also means that every time even a little cut heals, rather than following the slope of illness toward death, our body recovers just as miraculously, because of Jesus. When we come through a nasty cold or flu, His stripes have prevented our death. The effect of sin has been effectively rolled backward for a time.

Why does it matter that we get better, if we're all going to die anyway?
It is the mercy of God that delays the consequence of our sin in hopes that we will look to the One who endured the Cross on our behalf. (Hebrews 12:2)

Doctors have some knowledge and tools to treat sickness and pain, but God is the One who heals.

The fact that we are healed at all, from any diease or injury, is direct evidence to the God who heals. That our bodies, appointed to die, can recover, is a gleaming image of mercy...

The hand that could crush us at any moment rather covers and protects us, touching wounds and wiping away illness, just so that we can see Him and lift our eyes to Him.

You think this is an over-spiritualizing of the natural process of life and the progress of medicine? Let's not forget that the "heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork." (Psalm 19:1)

Look around you...the elements are saturated with His presence, and His fingerprints are everywhere. All of creation obeys His command, operating in a constant rhythm of instinct that He placed in every particle. He is Truth, and the source of all knowledge. The fact that He shares some of that with doctors--those who diligently seek truth--is testament to His grace.

As we head to Vanderbilt next month, I am so thankful for His grace that has allowed us the advances in medicine to treat something like a brain tumor. In centuries past, this would be a horrible descent to an early death, and an unspeakable tragedy for all who love my husband (and there are many).

But God has made the miraculous possible: to remove this ugly thing and live a virtually normal life thereafter. Our hope is in God, the Healer, the author and finisher of our faith.