Faith Enough to Heal

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, "If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured." Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Jesus, aware at once that power had gone out from him, turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who has touched my clothes?" But his disciples said to him, "You see how the crowd is pressing upon you, and yet you ask, Who touched me?" And he looked around to see who had done it.

The woman, realizing what had happened to her, approached in fear and trembling. She fell down before Jesus and told him the whole truth. He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction."  (Mark 5: 25-34)

I love today’s gospel story of the woman with the hemorrhages. So often I have prayed that I could be her. That Jesus would instantly heal me of my wounds. Maybe it is a lack of faith that has prevented this from happening but I am not sure. I encounter people every day that have incredible faith and they are not cured. The beautiful thing about it is that their faith doesn’t waiver even though their child is suffering greatly.

Our wounds sometimes run so deep and affect many aspects of our life. I know that the things I struggle with the most right now are directly related to the deep wounds that were inflicted on me as a child. And while the Lord has allowed incredible healing to occur in my life, there is still a lot of pain and more healing that needs to occur. I do know there is beauty in my struggles because they keep me humble. They sometimes knock me to my knees, the perfect place for calling on my Lord and Savior. They help me to draw closer to Him. Sometimes when I think I have things under control I test the situation to see how I am doing. In some things I am doing fine but others, I am not. I feel the pain again, usually inflicted by me, because I am not healed and I need to protect my heart. I thank God for never letting me go. I know my healing won’t be instantaneous like the woman in today’s gospel but that is fine. I am thankful that Christ is carrying my cross with me and that he stops and helps me get back up whenever I stumble and fall because of my pride or selfishness. I know he will continue to bear this with me until it is my time to come into His glory.