Healing Power

Healing Power

[Jesus] welcomed them and taught them about the Kingdom of God, and he healed those who were sick.

Luke 9:11

Many years ago an English sailor who had broken his leg was advised to send to the Royal Society an account of the remarkable manner in which he had healed the fracture. He did so.

His story was that, having fractured his leg by falling from the top of a high mast, he had dressed it with nothing but tar and oakum, which had proved so wonderfully effective that in only three days he was able to walk just as well as he had before the accident.

This remarkable story naturally caused some excitement among the members of the society. No one had previously suspected tar and oakum of possessing such miraculous healing powers.

Several letters accordingly passed between the Royal Society and the humble sailor, who continued to assert most solemnly that his broken leg had been treated with tar and oakum, and with nothing else.

The society might have remained puzzled for an indefinite period of time had not the man added an interesting postscript to his last letter, which said the following: “I forgot to inform your honors, by the way, that the leg I broke was a wooden one.”

A broken leg—even a wooden one—being healed in only three days would, indeed, be remarkable. Compare that, however, with Jesus’ miraculous healings of real withered arms, deaf ears, mute tongues, and even the dead. Consider his calming of storms, disappearing from amid crowds, and healing of people who only touched his robe as he passed by.

The healing power of God is incomparable!

Dear Lord, I come to you with gratitude for your healing touch on my heart and life. I know that you and you alone are the great Physician. Amen.