I was picking my kids up from VBS yesterday, and the song leader was up front reviewing the bible story the kids learned that day. It was from Luke 5 – the story of Jesus healing the Paralyzed man. And then the music started… and all the kids were standing, singing and doing hand motions to “God does Miracles… oh yeah, My God does Miracles!!!” And I became cynical.

Now let me stop and interject something. I have no right to be cynical. I have seen miracles. God saved Anne from the clutches of death, and now one year later, she’s learning bible verses at VBS. That’s a double dose of miracles. Hear me, I’m grateful. Oh so grateful…

But, the kids’ song raises a valid question. Why doesn’t God heal the way He healed when He walked the earth? Have you ever tried to count how many people He healed in the gospels? It’s a lot. And that doesn’t even count the sweeping statements like “and He went from town to town healing and teaching.” One of Jesus’ primary acts on earth was to heal. Why did He do it then and not now? We all have stories of people dying from cancer, struggling with a chronic illness, suffering from a disability. Why doesn’t GOD HEAL??!!!

I have an answer. It’s actually a very satisfying answer. I learned it from Nancy Guthrie, author of Hearing Jesus Speak Into Your Sorrow. The answer is found in the story of the Paralytic – the very story the children learned that day. What does Jesus do before He heals the man physically? He heals him spiritually by forgiving his sins. Listen and imagine the scene…

On one of those days, as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was with him to heal. And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus. And when he saw their faith, he said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you” (Luke 5:17-20).

My gut reaction to this story is usually disappointment – which reveals my lack of understanding. I have a tendency to think, “How in the world does that help this poor paralyzed man? His friends have strained, wrestled and worked to get their friend before THE HEALER, and all He can do is forgive the man’s sins? I want to shout, “HEAL HIM! DON’T FORGIVE HIM!” And oh how wrong I am…

I was talking with Canon about this story yesterday, and I asked him… “Would you rather Jesus heal Anne spiritually, and she’ll live forever in heaven with a perfect body? Or would you rather Jesus heal her physically, right now, but she wouldn’t be able to go to heaven?” Well that’s a silly question!! Of course we would rather Anne be whole in heaven.

Jesus healed on earth to give us a physical representation – a word picture of sorts – of how he heals us spiritually. When we have a saving faith, we are healed for all eternity. Our current bodies are broken and temporal. Sometimes He heals us physically and sometimes He doesn’t. But really, God cares more about our eternity with Him than our ease and comfort on this earth. God knows the TRUE, BIG picture which we don’t see clearly…

It’s still hard to wait for heaven through our difficult circumstances – which is why I get cynical and shortsighted sometimes:-) Thankfully, God has given us His Word as a constant source of encouragement and truth!

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).