Strange Healing

The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”

One summer afternoon, my boys were playing in the backyard of a friend’s house. Suddenly, my son burst into the house holding his hand. “A bee stung me,” he announced as he clutched his red palm. Lickety-split, my friend hopped up and opened a kitchen drawer. She shuffled through items until she found what she was looking for—a tiny bottle of pure lavender oil.

I’d seen lavender used in sachets, neck pillows, and lotions, but I’d never seen its amazing healing powers until that day. This little flower that attracts bees and blooms so beautifully in backyards can also soothe an insect sting. What incredible, unexpected healing!

In Numbers 21, the children of Israel grumbled against Moses as they traveled in the desert, and the Lord brought venomous snakes to bite them as punishment for their sin. When the people realized their wrongdoing, the Lord saw their repentance and answered with an unexpected kind of healing. A bronze snake on a pole would remind the people of God’s healing forgiveness. All they had to do was raise their eyes to be cured.

What a strange healing God offered! He didn’t take away the snakes, but he offered something better than merely physical healing. God offered what the Israelites really needed—an opportunity for restored relationship with him. Healing lay exclusively in their connection with the Great Physician, the one who could remedy the sin-sickness that was their real and greater injury.

When people talk about grief, they often use the word healing for the resolution of the pain we feel. But grief isn’t something that heals like a broken arm or a bee sting. You can’t set a bone, apply ointment, or try to keep the wound clean of grief. To live fully after loss, we must accept this reality. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t experience the redemptive healing care of God in your life with loss today.

Until Jesus returns, your loss will hurt. As you wait for that day, God offers you the unexpected healing power of his presence in your pain. All you have to do is raise your eyes. What will God’s healing power look like in your life? Like lavender oil on a bee sting, you can expect it might be subtle. It will require constant application of his life-giving resurrection truth to your heart. God’s healing power won’t take away all of the pain today, but the sweet-smelling aroma of his presence will remind you that sorrow can live side by side with joy. As you wait for Christ to come again, God offers you healing of a different kind. Not the “get over it and move on” kind that the world sells, but a quiet trust that gently soothes your heartbreak and offers you fresh new mercies for this day.

Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

A Prayer: Lord Jesus, you were lifted up like the bronze serpent to save me from death’s pain. Today, I look to you for the kind of healing only you can give. I do not expect my grief to go away this side of heaven, but I do pray that you would be present with me in it. Soothe my sadness with your love. Encourage my heart with your provision. Heal my hope as you bring me new life each day. I trust that someday you will return to make all things new. I long for that day when complete healing arrives for me and for those I love. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. I wait for you. Amen.

An Activity for Today: While ultimate healing will only come when Jesus returns, we can experience a foretaste of that goodness in the company of others. If you haven’t done so already, sign up for a grief support group and enter a community of care. Hospice organizations often offer relationship-specific loss groups (young widows, parents with children, siblings, etc.). Many churches offer grief support that doesn’t require you to be a member of the congregation. Visit www.GriefShare.org to find a community group that makes you feel less alone and supports you as you learn to live without your person.

A Song to Encourage Your Heart: “Praise before My Breakthrough” by Bryan and Katie Torwalt