Do You Need Healing?

Earlier this month, an advertisement covered the back page of the free newspaper given out at Metro stations in Washington. I have since tucked the paper away, placing it in the middle of a pile of papers on my kitchen table because the advertisement is so thought-provoking to me.

The top line reads, "Do you need healing?" I suppose that the majority of the people getting on the Metro on any given day need healing. People need healing from their headaches. People need healing from broken relationships. People need healing from ankles that have been twisted, alcoholism that has robbed their spirits, cancer that has entered their bodies, and other illnesses. We are all in need of healing - healing of some kind.

However, there was a limited amount of healing being offered. One of the tools for healing being offered on August 2 was olive oil from the Holy Land, Jerusalem. Yet, the advertisement alerts all who read to "call now and reserve yours." There is a limited availability. Not everyone gets the total package being offered.

There are many things in this life with limited availability. I am reminded each day that hundreds of people in this city have a limited amount of food. There is a limited amount of shelter, too. There is also a limited amount of health care coverage. There is even a limited amount of textbooks in the public schools of this city. There is not, however, a limited amount of healing.

The God I know and love longs to heal anyone and everyone of whatever ailment we are facing. God lingers close, promising to never leave us or forsake us. God knows everything we are facing, no matter how painful it is, because God has also felt it, experiencing the most intense pain of all - the death of his own child. And while the healing God offers does not always come in the package we imagined, I believe God is constantly healing us.

God heals us of our past. God heals us of our brokenness. God heals us of our disease. And this healing does not run dry. There is an unlimited supply. And you can call now. You call by saying, "Spirit of the Living God, fall fresh upon me again this day. Renew me. Touch me. Transform me. Penetrate through the places of brokenness and decay in my life. Heal me. Amen."

Thanks be to God.