Write at the Heart

 “Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither... I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you. ...He did heal them, every one.” 3 Ne. 17:7-9 So beautiful! But what about those who weren’t there? What about those who are not healed? Three years ago today we lost my husband’s best friend, his brother, to cancer. It was heart wrenching.  The day after his death we watched conference and there was a talk by Elder Hallstrom called "Has the Day of Miracles Ceased?" And I bawled. He shared the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the Bible.  That phrase, "But if not," is compelling, poignant, powerful. Because- What about our prayers, what about our fasting, what about the priesthood blessings, what about our faith, his faith? He had the faith to be healed. We all knew it! We prayed for it! Through the ups and downs of treatments, we believed. This is why the question, "Do you have faith NOT to be healed?" is so thought-provoking...

A few years ago my then 5-year-old was jumping on our brand new trampoline when suddenly I heard shrieking, “I BWOKE MY ARM!” My heart froze and I ran, really scared at what I’d see. What I saw left NO doubt- his arm was definitely broken! Gently placing his floppy arm onto a pillow while he cried in pain & terror, we raced to an urgent care, who told us to head directly to the hospital cause he was gonna need surgery! He’d broken it just above his elbow ALL the way across. About the worst arm break you could get.  After a lot of screaming, crying, bruising, swelling, an artery spasm, surgery with 3 pins put in, my brave boy was on the mend. The day finally came to get his cast off and I had my doubts. I’ve never broken a bone myself, so it seemed IMPOSSIBLE that his arm could go from that grotesque, limp thing I saw to a fully functional arm.  And yet- before my eyes was his healed arm! I winced as he moved it around, sure something would snap! But no- the bone had fused ...

We found some natural sandstone water slides during our camping trip this weekend. What an adrenaline rush! But, as they say, it’s all fun and games until someone dislocates a finger. My husband came out of the water and really freaked the kids out with his crooked, bloody finger. OH, AND ME. It was pretty grotesque. After an x-ray determined it was NOT broken (whew), the doctor took his finger and gave it a nice, big YANK. And boom, just like that, his crooked finger was made straight. What’s funny is his pain level was actually pretty tolerable BEFORE the yanking of the finger. BUT- it was inevitable... It had to be fixed. To realign the bone, to promote function, to bring healing, Great pain was required. We might think we are “okay.” The pain is manageable. Maybe we don’t even need a doctor? We can live with it. But if nothing is done, proper healing cannot take place. Sometimes fixing what is broken is an EXCRUCIATING process. But in the whole scheme of things, one excruciating mo...