Medicine Changes, God Does Not

Medicine Changes, God Does Not

Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. James 1:17

I have practiced medicine for more than thirty years. Occasionally, I’ve reflected on the exponential growth and changes that have occurred in medicine during that time.

Recently, while cleaning out an old filing cabinet, I found some notes I’d taken while in medical school. For the better part of an hour, I sat on the floor and read through them. I laughed out loud about some of the things I’d written down. At the time, the gold standard advice and treatment we were told to give our patients seemed rock solid. But with new discoveries, many of those solid rocks had crumbled under the weight of new evidence.

For example, my notes contained information on an antibiotic that was the recommended first line of treatment for a certain infection. We now know that this treatment is totally ineffective. It used to be thought that peptic ulcer disease was caused by stress. We now know that it is often caused by the Helicobacter pylori bacteria, and it’s treatable with antibiotics. Back then, MRIs were still on the drawing board; we had never seen one. Now we use them daily to diagnose problems that weren’t detectable even a few years ago.

As our knowledge of medicine grows, it seems that the ground we once stood on continues to shift. The one and only constant in healing is God himself.

The same prayers of hope and healing prayed for patients thirty years ago, fifty years ago, one hundred years ago, even one thousand years ago, are still heard at the bedside here and now. God never changes. Even in our evidence-based world of medicine, he is, has been, and always will be the gold standard in healing.

TODAY’S RX

God heals, and God never changes; but with the advancement of human discovery, he may change the tools he uses to heal us.

God, in this ever-changing world, thank you for remaining constant from the beginning of time. You are and always have been a loving, gracious Father who hears and answers prayers.