HEALING — A GIFT OF GOD.

And He said to her, ” Daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well. Go in peace”.(Luke 8:24)

“You are healed and perfectly alright now. You need not come again. Good luck”, said the doctor who was treating our daughter for the last one year , after seeing her X-rays, MRI scan reports and Lab reports.

This happened yesterday, when we had visited the hospital for our daughter’s review after a year. We could only say “Praise the Lord” when we heard the good news. It was such a reassuring declaration that we had heard from the doctor, after all the pain and physical and mental agony which our daughter and we had gone through for more than three to four years. We had been visiting many hospitals and specialist doctors, irrespective of their qualifications and Systems of Medicine all these years , until we came to this Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in India. We still remember ( I am sure the Doctor too remembers) our daughter’s question she anxiously asked him in July 2018. With great concern she had asked him,  “Will I be able to walk normally again Dr ?”, and he had then replied providentially ,” We will try our best, and let us hope for the best “. Today, one and a half years later, as we walked out of the doctor’s room thanking him, I was reminded of the incident recorded in the Gospels of Mark chapter 5: 25-34, Mathew 9:20-22, and Luke 8: 43-48.

In the Gospel portions mentioned above, we see a woman who was suffering from continuous bleeding for twelve years coming to Jesus hoping for a cure. She had, according to Mark’s Gospel, had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. Our daughter’s experience was no different.
We read in the Bible that when she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. Immediately the bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. Where physicians of the world failed, Jesus Christ succeeded. What is not possible with men is possible with God. ( Luke 1:37).
Jesus knew His Power going out from Him to heal her, and that’s why He asked, “who touched me ?”. When His disciples gently reminded Jesus, “Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘who touched Me?'”. Jesus said, “somebody touched me, for I perceived Power going out from Me”. Perhaps her touch of the Master’s robe would not have been noticed by anyone in the crowd as men, women and children were thronging around Him and pushing Him from all sides. But, her touch of faith could not be hidden from the Master. Trembling, she came out of the crowd and falling down before Him she confessed to Him in the presence of all around. The crowd who listened to her testimony also heard the Lord’s benediction, “Daughter, be of good cheer, your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”

Jesus’ calling her “Daughter” suggests that she was young, though wasted and feeble by her malady which took toll on her health. But, the nature of her disease and the age , sex, religion or caste of the afflicted makes no difference for our saviour in healing the sick and saving the Lost.
Eventhough we find no reference in the Bible of the name of the woman who was healed, legends say that she was Veronica, and that she walked with Jesus as He went to Calvary bearing the cross. On the way to the cross, seeing His blood and sweat,she drew out her handkerchief and wiped her Master’s brow. Later, as she reverently caressed the piece of linen, she found the image of the blood stained face of Jesus imprinted on it.
Stories and legends run deep in the minds of people generation after generation. But, the truth of the healing, which is a miracle and a Gift of God is personal and is experienced by true believers who approach Jesus Christ in true faith. We are witnesses to the miracle, and our daughter is a living witness to the Miraculous Healing Touch of our Lord, and will remain an enigma in the mind of the doctor who treated her.
A prayer of thanks. ‘Jesus, thank you for reminding us that we are never out of Your reach or without hope. You are able to do what no one else can do.’ Amen.