I wonder what it would be like to be healed from something such as blindness. I had a brain hemorrhage when I was 17. I spent eight to 10 days in a hospital but I remember only a couple of those days. I was quite blessed because, even if my hemorrhage gave me a 50-50 chance to survive, I did not have to go through the knife. Neither did I experience significant after-effects. I look back at this experience and am very grateful for my full recovery. How much more amazing this experience would have been if it involved being debilitated and then healed.
The healing miracles of Jesus are a sign of God’s desire to heal us, not just physically but spiritually as well. Jesus demonstrates authority over sickness so we would believe that He can heal us from within through the forgiveness of our sins. It is critical that we recognize the truth of God’s love for us if we want to fully benefit from it. Nothing can stand in the way of God’s desire to redeem us except our refusal of the offer of salvation. Our tendency is to invent obstacles: “I am too much of a sinner. How can God really love little old me? I don’t deserve to be forgiven.”
Some of these excuses, if not all of them, have some basis, but Jesus tells us in the Gospel (Mark 8:22-26) that He is far bigger than any of the problems we can think of so we should not worry about them. All we have to do is open our hearts to the solution — His love — and allow Him to set about the work of salvation from within.
Jesus will not hesitate to enter our lives if we welcome Him in. Perhaps it would be good for us to be seriously sick so that we will better realize our need for His grace? No, that is not necessary! All that is necessary is that we be humble enough to invite Him in.
