A Day Of Visitation

Support your local attorneys ;
Send your kid to medical school.

Know the difference between a doctor and God?
God does not think He’s a doctor.

Those are two of the jokes that rattled around our friend Barbara’s hospital room when my friend Wes and I visited her yesterday.

Yes, spreading light and joy, we visited the afflicted lady. She’d expected to be told the results of the cancer tests and we wanted to be with her for support when she heard the news. Unfortunately, the results were not in yet. So we sat around sharing jokes and talking about divine healing and Christian dieing.

From preliminary information, it looks iffy that Barbara will ever make it out of the hospital and she’s perfectly happy with that prospect and looks forward to seeing the Lord Christ face to face. She is not inclined to seek aggressive, and possibly debilitating, treatment.

Now Wes, Barbara and I –all of us believe in God’s ability to heal.

We also believe He is not obligated to do so.

Like in marriage, the relationship of the Christian to the Lord is in sickness and in health—neither one breaks that relationship.

Of course, we all prefer the in-health part. That’s natural. But no one stays on this earth forever and sometimes illness is one of the cards we’re dealt.

Besides, Jesus never cured anyone of old age.

In the midst of Barbara’s present bout with cancer, her biggest concern is that the only food she’s been able to eat for the past 14 days is Jello and broth. She says she’s more sick of Jello than she is of cancer.

Wes told about how the Lord healed his daughter, Sandy, as a dying infant, but let her die of cancer when she was 17 years old. His faith uplifted him in both situations.

I have no experience in divine healing, but I told about how Barbara and I became friends about 25 years ago—I wrote about this on October 23, 2007, Two Rain Storms in my blog archives. What’s odd about that is that our friendship began 25 years ago in this same hospital.

While Barbara, Wes and I talked, a pastor from Barbara’s church came in to visit also. When I told him, he was surprised to learn about some of Barbara’s books being broadcast by that radio station in Singapore, China; she’d forgotten to mention that to him before.

In the midst of our conversation about sickness, healing and the mercy of God, I recalled an incident from my recent Bible reading. I could not remember the name of the king and called him Hazaiahwhat’sit—but Wes, ever the Bible scholar, said the guy’s name was Azariah.

Here’s the odd thing the Scripture says about Azariah in Second Kings 15:

In the twenty and seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel began Azariah son of Amaziah king of Judah to reign.

Sixteen years old was he when he began to reign, and he reigned two and fifty years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem.

And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done; Save that the high places were not removed: the people sacrificed and burnt incense still on the high places.

And the LORD smote the king, so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house.

So, Azariah did what was right in the sight of the Lord… And the Lord smote the 16-year-old with chronic, life-long leprosy.

Let’s see, he was 16 when he got it, and he reigned for 52 years—that means he was sick for… Let’s see, 16 from 52 is??? And carry your six…or do you add it? Ginny would know. Anyhow, He was sick a long time.

And he was a good guy.

And though he were a king, he lived all his days in a pest house, not a palace.

And it was the Lord who smote him, not the devil.

And we are not told why the Lord afflicted this good young man with leprosy.

The Scripture teaches realistic life, not some magic fantasy.

Yes, God can kill or He can keep alive according to His own high purposes.

Barbara said our role is to trust Him whether we understand what’s going on or not.

She emphasizes that God is good even when it does not appear that way to us.

And so went our day of visitation—laughing at dumb doctor jokes, trusting, and worshiping the Lord God of Heaven.