I Will Return

I Will Return

“I will return to you about this time next year, and your wife, Sarah, will have a son!” Sarah was listening to this conversation from the tent. Genesis 18:10

“Doc, I’m afraid my life hasn’t always been on the straight and narrow,” Sean said. It was his first visit, and we were going over his past medical history. “When I was younger, I was an IV drug user, and I contracted hepatitis C.”

Looking Sean in the eye, I could instantly see his anguish. He had repented of his old ways but was left with the consequences of those former sins. “Hepatitis C is a virus that attacks the liver, and in some cases, it can cause cirrhosis and liver failure,” I said.

“Yeah. That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. My cousin just died of liver failure. I was there with him, and he suffered tremendously. Can you make sure I don’t suffer?”

I thought about how hard it must be to live with such severe consequences. “There are some new treatments in the final stages of testing by the FDA. The results look promising. Let’s see if you qualify for one of those studies. But I don’t want to get your hopes up.”

“I’m willing to try,” Sean said. “Even if I’m in the control group and get the placebo, maybe they will learn something that can help someone else.”

In today’s verse, the verb “I will return” in Hebrew means “to intervene in someone’s life to change his or her destiny.” Certainly, if Sarah had a baby, it would forever change her life. At the time, though, she had a lot of doubts about whether that would happen.

Often, my patients face the same kinds of doubts about their treatments, and so do I. Until they return to my office, we can’t be sure whether the treatment is working. When Sean qualified for the new treatment in a double-blind trial, we didn’t know which drug he had received. When I saw him several weeks after he started the trial, he seemed somewhat improved, but we still didn’t know for sure.

When Sean returned to my office a year later, it was evident that he had been cured. His destiny had been changed because God had intervened, and his life was starting anew.

TODAY’S RX

Be alert to new ways in which God may want to intervene and change your destiny.

God, I praise you for providing for my needs. When I have doubts, you have answers, and I know my life is in good hands. Thank you for setting my path straight and leading the way.