A trembling leper came to Jesus. Imagine some raggedy outcast daring to speak to this amazing Rabbi. People said He healed everyone, without exception.

But will He heal me? the man wondered, then did what we’d all do in Christ’s presence– fell on his knees.

“If You want, Jesus, You can make me whole.”

“I want to! Be clean.”

I love this guy’s courage! Weary from a life condemned to living with lepers, forced to wear filthy clothes, he was required to cry out to anyone approaching, “Leper! Leper!”

And I love Christ’s response: Of course I want to!

Hear His unwavering voice, see the fire in His eyes, looking on this beloved child of God. Jesus broke every law in the book when He reached out and touched someone with a numbing, flesh-destroying disease.

And the man was healed.

Does Christ still do this, today?

If He’s the same yesterday, today and forever, He does. The Unchanging One bore all our dirt, grief and sorrow, so we could be whole in body, soul and spirit. There’s no record of His turning a single hurting person away, whatever tumor, tick or tremor they bore.

I read the leper’s story in the book of Luke, written by a physician. I’m reading through Luke’s gospel, noting all the healings he describes. Churches often skirt around this question: is Jesus willing to extend to us what He offered the leper?

*****

I’ve shared glimpses of God’s grace with a few audiences recently; this blog is for friends who said they were sorry to miss it. I view what’s happening to me the only way I know how, through a kaleidoscope of faith. The leper’s story and the questions it stirs seem a good way to start.

After I completed radical treatments to remove breast cancer in 2017, I began daily hormone therapy. I called them my anti-cancer pills. They didn’t work.

This February, I thought I had a UTI. An antibiotic didn’t help. Aching pain increased to where I struggled to walk and needed Jim’s help to get out of bed or a chair. I thought it must be kidney stones, They hurt a lot, right?

On a Sunday evening in early March I sat in my living room, reading the results of a CAT scan, unable to comprehend what it said, medical jargon describing lesions in my liver and pelvic bone. And my pain? It was from a fracture of my sacrum caused by tumors.

Emotionally devastated, my sweet Jim and I wept in each other’s arms. Then we responded to an invite to Divine Destiny Church, where they happened to be teaching on divine healing.

What are the chances of that?

People surrounded us, laid hands upon us, prayed for us. Someone prayed to Jehovah Rohpe, the God who heals all our diseases. I learned this Hebrew name in a song some 40 years ago at Bobbie Yagel’s Bible study at Graystone church. It has run through my brain, ever since.
(https://genius.com/Don-moen-i-am-the-god-that-healeth-thee-lyrics )

More tests showed more lesions. I try to focus on the peace of Jesus. Sometimes I do that better than others. So many folks stand with us, but at moments I feel numb and distant, like a leper must feel.

We have a great cancer center a few miles from home where I usually go for treatments. A friend with advanced breast cancer helped me get in to see her doctor in Pittsburgh for a second opinion. He’s one of the best oncologists for metastatic breast cancer, anywhere.

He said, “I think we have a chance of beating this thing!”

I said, “Can we start today?”

“I don’t know why not!”

What are the chances of that?

My pastor asks, what are the chances I’d see the best doc in the country 12 days after learning cancer is messing with me? What are the chances that our kids living in New Zealand would move to Pittsburgh right when we need family close?

There is something bigger than chance at work, here.

My fracture is healing. I push myself to keep active. I returned the wheelchair we borrowed from Calvary Presbyterian Church, myself. Somebody else may need it; I don’t.

Some say I’m an optimist. I say I’m a beloved child of God, like that leper. Jesus says we’re all worth dying for.

You can’t talk about healing without doubts filling the air. We don’t always see physical healing result when we pray, but that doesn’t mean we stop praying. A life verse of mine, Romans 8:28, says all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes.

All things.

Sometimes, that has to be enough.

People say, “Jan, you’ve got this!”

Really, I don’t. But God is bigger than cancer. The Unchanging One has this.

All will be well.

Texting Thru Recovery/Indiana Gazette 5-11-19