Trinity UCC Lenten Devotional Friday, March 6th, 2015 Healing By Nancy Boorman

March 6

Healing to come in the next life

Scripture

Revelation 21:4

“And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

As a student chaplain in Scottish Rite Children’s Hospital I had to come to the stark reality that my ministry of hope and healing may not always be received in this life time. I was not ready for that. I was not pollyanna about it but I was certainly on the “ in this life time” train.  Often delivering a message of hope and healing to a terminally ill patient is about finding the comfort and peace in the end. In the joy of a life well lived. The hope of an eternity that waits where there is no death, nor sorrow nor crying only glorious light.

 

Healing comes to us all in one way or another, in this life time or the next.  I have sat with the dying and the living. I have watched a baby be born. It is all sacred, and beautiful and intimate. I believe in the healing power of a touch, a word and a look. All of it can bring peace and hope to one who knows that full healing will only come in the full presence of the Lord. May we all pray for God’s will to be done.

Can there be healing in letting go? What does fully healing mean to you? What does it mean to your faith when it is not granted in this life time?

Prayer: Often Lord I come with a heavy heart as a life journey of a fight for healing from an illness is lost. Lost only to be received in your presence. I mourn for those of us left behind. For as we say good bye another is saying hello. Strengthen us to carry on Lord. AMEN.

 

Gone From My Sight by Henry Van Dyke

 

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship, at my side,

spreads her white sails to the moving breeze and starts

for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength.

I stand and watch her until, at length, she hangs like a speck

of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.

 

Then, someone at my side says, "There, she is gone"

 

Gone where?

 

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast,

hull and spar as she was when she left my side.

And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.

 

Her diminished size is in me -- not in her.

And, just at the moment when someone says, "There, she is gone,"

there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices

ready to take up the glad shout, "Here she comes!"

 

And that is dying...