I saw a guy at church recently, and it made me think of a story I had heard about him. I heard that this man had a terminal case of cancer then the cancer was gone–it was a miracle. What struck me that morning at church was how hard it would be to remain a skeptic if you worked in a hospital. People hear stories occasionally of a fatal prognosis not coming true, so if you worked in a hospital, I reasoned, then you must hear stories like that all the time.
How hard must it be to hold on to skepticism in a hospital environment?
But then I thought about the times I’ve heard of someone dying unexpectedly, of a simple medical issue becoming more complicated and suddenly turning fatal. How many times have family and friends prayed for God to intervene, yet God seems silent? And then I wondered, as I sat there in church, how hard it would be for a skeptic who works in a hospital to embrace a saving faith in Jesus.
Why do some people defy the odds and get better and others don’t? What do we say to the bereaved when they have prayed for a miracle and didn’t get what they yearned for?
I guess what we say to them is driven by who we are and who they are individually. Sometimes people want answers, sometimes they want comfort, and sometimes they just need time to grieve.
I remember a minister at a funeral who said something along the lines of this: We cling so hard to life in this land of the dying while the departed can go to the land of the living.
We cannot hold on to this life forever, nor will the people we love. But we can go someday to a land where there will be no sorrow, no tears. We don’t always (often?) understand God in this life, but we can be with Him someday through what Jesus did. I don’t have all the answers, but I have that one. I hope it helps you.