A friend with chronic back pain. Doctors have thrown up their hands without clues or conclusions. Another friend dies after years of alcohol abuse, surrounded by a few friends but apparently no family. Only to find out he had a twin brother. The two lost for three decades. A senior in our youth group dies after years of struggle with leukemia. Healing?
I continue to be enticed by Mark’s gospel account of the life of Jesus. Wow! What a teacher! After 20 short sentences of introduction Mark’s Jesus begins his healing flurry. Man with an “impure” spirit? Healed. Mother-in-law of a friend with threatening fever? Healed. Then those surrounding him gather everyone who was sick or demon-possessed. Healed. All of them. Then Jesus took a breather. Whew! Then a man with a skin disease? Healed. And that’s only chapter 1. I wonder if Mark is trying to tell us something about Jesus?
The people healed in Jesus’ embrace no doubt had multiple strikes against them in their day. Brokenness was physical, emotional, communal, and spiritual. My sense is that Jesus led a movement of holistic healing that elevated the broken back to personhood. This is our legacy.
If “healing” were science we simply would pass out the right formula, encourage everyone to follow the rules, and life would be fine. Right? But healing is far from a science. More like a dance… or a song… or lingering in the shadows of the woods on a hot day… Check out the quotes below. What are your favorite “healing” quote?
God’s healing touch to you – Bill
- It’s when we start working together that the real healing takes place… it’s when we start spilling our sweat, and not our blood. David Hume
- Healing yourself is connected with healing others. Yoko Ono
- I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. Billy Joel
- Our sorrows and wounds are healed only when we touch them with compassion. Buddha
- I am not bound for any public place, but for ground of my own where I have planted vines and orchard trees, and in the heat of the day climbed up into the healing shadow of the woods. Wendell Berry