There is a cry that rises from the depths of a child’s heart for a mother, and it reaches the ear of the Great Physician. Bodily disease is a bitter draught, but it often drives the soul to the fountain where healing flows without money and without price. You have asked in the name of Jesus Christ, and that Name is as ointment poured forth; it carries the very leaves of the tree of life, and the least leaf from that tree is full of healing virtue. Yet remember, while you plead for the mortal frame, do not neglect the immortal spirit. The most grievous malady of the heart is the palsy of sin, and the first word of Christ to the sick of the palsy was, “Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” He strikes at the root of the disease when He pardons, for sin and suffering are wound together like the cords of a whip.
Lay hold upon this: the healing of the body and the healing of the soul are often twinned mercies. When the Sun of Righteousness rises, healing is in His wings for both. But take heed that your mother, in this time of weakness, hears not merely the cry for a whole body, but the sweet whisper of the gospel that can make her spirit whole. The body is but a tabernacle that will one day be folded up; the spirit, once regenerated, cannot die. If she be in Christ, she is safe, whether in the body or out of it. And if she has not yet fled to Him for refuge, this affliction is the herald bidding her to the healing leaves that grow on Calvary’s tree.
Pray on, but pray with both ears open to God’s Word. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word. It is when Christ is teaching that His healing power is most present. Seek for her the teaching that softens the heart, that breaks the hard ground, and then the balm of Gilead will flow in. Many a time, the first cure Christ works is to say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” and then the fever leaves, or the leprosy departs. Obey whatever He says; do it at once, exactly, without murmuring. And if it be His will to grant a gradual recovery, let not impatience breed a relapse worse than the first sickness. The leaves of that heavenly tree not only heal; they change the very life-blood and guard against a return of the old malady.
Yet should the Lord, in His unsearchable wisdom, delay full restoration, or call your honoured mother home, the ultimate healing is not lost. The day comes when the body sown in weakness is raised in power, and they who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb need no more say, “I am sick.” That promise stands firm for all the ransomed: the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick; the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity. Until then, cling to the hand that lifts up the prostrate; He took Peter’s wife’s mother by the hand and lifted her up, and straightway she ministered unto them. So may it be with your mother, that her restored strength may be spent in serving Him, and your own heart, now so burdened, may find its own breaking healed by the same tender hand. God bless you, and breathe peace upon your whole house.