(…continued) Just as the end of the story for that woman was good, the rest of the Bible promises a good end to ALL of our stories. All who believe in Jesus will receive eternal life in God’s heavenly home, in a life without suffering, pain, or death. Sometimes we may receive healing here, and sometimes we will not be healed. And of course, no one is ever healed every time, and eventually death does come. Death always gets its moment with us.
But then comes the final and complete healing of the resurrection. That is the good ending promised in the Bible, and that is our solid hope and our firm foundation. In this story there is the silence of Jesus, His harsh refusal, the inevitable desperation, uncertainty, and pain; but then, a wonderful ending. The daughter is healed.
The rest of the New Testament expands our horizons out into to all eternity, telling us over and over again that death is not the end, and that the good and happy ending for us will come after death. So even as we pray for healing and answers now, we also have in mind the assurance of that bigger and better answer in eternity.
Yankee catcher Yogi Berra always said that in baseball and in life, “It ain’t over til it’s over.” Actually, Yogi said, “I never said half the things I said,” and he wasn’t the first to say that famous line. But he has become so identified with the statement that he said he was going to put it on his tombstone: “IT’S OVER.” He didn’t, but he would have been wrong about that, you know. It doesn’t have to be all over at the grave. It is after death that all prayers will receive their most perfect answer. And the best is yet to be.
Until then, much of life is spent waiting. We pray and we wait. We wait not only for healing, but for personal problems to be resolved, for troubled relationships to be healed, for loved ones to come to faith, for the rain to come, for the rain to stop, for the Nazis to be defeated, then for the communists to be defeated, and now, for the terrorists to be defeated; and so on and so on and so on. We pray and we wait. We pray and we wait. This story, harsh as it is, is a realistic picture of life. We must wait for Jesus to respond, and in our waiting, it sometimes seems that he is not hearing us, or, is refusing us. But just as the story is realistic, it is also hopeful. It has a good ending. And as we say our prayers, we do pray for life and healing now; but we also pray as Jesus himself prayed, “not my will but thine be done.” And then we leave it in God’s hands, knowing that he will indeed bring healing and life; perhaps now, but most certainly, in the life to come. So we pray, “Thy will be done,” and we also pray, “Thy kingdom come.”
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Psalm 34:17-18 — The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Isaiah 55:8-9 — “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
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In the tumult and trouble of our lives, O God, grant us your peace: that we may be greater of soul for all that befalls us, and better fitted for your service by all our sorrows. Deliver us, O God, from our little fears, and if ever the dark comes upon us, let it be your darkness. And when we hope for the wrong thing, let us wait in the dark until you can make us ready for what you have promised. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
–adapted from prayers by Paul Sherer in Love is a Spendthrift
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