Oh, how I ask this for so many of my hurting friends today: “Jesus…asked him, ‘Would you like to get well?’ “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, ‘for I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred up.’ Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your sleeping mat, and walk!’ Instantly, the man was healed! Still praying for a long list of saints during the night and this morning. Oh, how we need Jesus to touch their bodies, and heal our hurting hearts. Maranatha, Lord, Jesus.
When we see friends close to death, we face the topic of mortality so very closely. While we Christians live and die with hope of eternity, it is still painful to know the Fall of man, resulting in physical death, is such a large price to pay. The longer I live, the more difficult it becomes to confront the human heart’s suffering at watching loved ones facing imminent death, or perhaps worse, living with debilitating pain which has no end in sight. I am dealing with this issue in the wonderful small group ministry my husband and I lead, and in other friends who are hospitalized, and some on hospice care. The question of suffering is not answered, except to say that this is not all there is to life, that we need to serve as long as physically and mentally possible, and we need to treasure each moment of each passing day, of each succeeding year with the assurance that God loves us, God knows our pain, and His will is sovereign.
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