What About Healing?

I prayed for a miracle. I believed for a miracle. I blogged about a miracle. I waited for the miracle.

But my mother died anyway.

How do you reconcile Scriptures that promise healing when the healing doesn’t come? One can argue that healing did come—through death. It’s true that Mom now lives without cancer in the tangible presence of Jesus the Healer, somewhere beyond the realm of my understanding.

But I don’t believe that every Bible verse about healing means “healing in heaven.”

There are two things that I know, and a third that I believe: God tells us to pray for healing (James 5:14-15), and it is appointed for every person to die once (Hebrews 9:27).

We prayed in accordance with God’s Word, which can never be wrong. But it must have been Mom’s appointed time. Even the raised-from-the-dead Lazarus died again. But his appointed time that eventually came did not nullify the miracle that occurred. He truly had been healed and given more time on earth.

Here is what I believe: We received the miracle we prayed for in November. When the doctors gave Mom three weeks to live, she was weak and tired with fluid in her lungs. But she emerged from the hospital with clear lungs. I’ll never forget how she looked walking toward the house as I waited for her to come home from the hospital: energetic, youthful and beautiful. Clear skin, radiant smile. Even the doctors were surprised. Instead of three weeks, she lived for three months.

Yes, I prayed for more than three months. More than three years. I wanted Mom to grow into the strong and graceful old lady she would have been. But her heavenly Father, for reasons known only to Himself, wanted her with Him. He gave us the miracle He had prepared for us, even though it was different from the one we wanted.

There’s something else that I think. I think part of the three-month miracle was God’s answer to the desire of my mother’s heart. I know she wanted to be with her family over the holidays. Or maybe she didn’t want her family to lose her right before the holidays. Either way, God granted that desire.

How I wish He had given us more time! How heart-broken I remain. But this I know and truly believe: God is still in the business of healing. He heals broken bodies and broken hearts. Maybe the only way to discover true wholeness in Christ is to be willing to fully embrace the brokenness He allows and to trust Him through the pain.