It is no small thing to watch your child suffer while you stand by, able to do little more than love her and pray. When the pain lingers month after month, the heart begins to wear thin in places. I have seen plenty of mothers and fathers sitting just where you are now, their thoughts tangled up with the pillow where their dear one lies, counting the days and wondering when the Lord will turn His hand.
But I want you to notice something about our Lord Jesus Christ. When He walked among us, He seemed drawn to the sickroom as a physician is drawn to his patient. He did not wait for the fever to announce itself politely; He went straight into the house where it burned. Peter’s own home had a sick woman in it, his wife’s mother, struck down with a great fever, and yet the Lord did not pass that door. The disease might fill the air, but the Healer filled the house with something stronger. Your daughter’s back pain is not hidden from Him. He knows the mattress where she rests, the chair she cannot sit in long, the small disappointments that gather through the day. And He is the same Christ who bent over that fevered woman and took her by the hand.
Here is a sweet thing to hold fast: when the Lord heals, He heals thoroughly. The Gospels are full of cures, and in nearly every one the person rose and served, or walked home carrying what they could not carry before, or saw their loved ones with eyes that had been dark. Our Savior is not content with half-measures. If He touches your daughter, He will touch her completely. None of those who came to Him went away saying, “He helped me a little, but the trouble remained.” No, the power of the Lord was present to heal them, all of them, the whole affliction, the root and the branch together.
That does not mean we may dictate the timing. Sometimes the Lord lets the illness linger so that the healing will shine all the brighter when it comes, and so that we will never mistake the physician for ourselves or for any earthly remedy. A long trial often makes a deep blessing. I have known saints who were bedridden for years, and out of their sick chambers flowed such grace and wisdom that everyone around them was enriched. Yet even then, the Lord was with them in the fire, and the fire did not consume them. Your daughter’s pain is not a mark of God’s displeasure. The dearest children often feel the rod most keenly, and the sweetest spirits are sometimes housed in the frailest frames.
Let your faith carry her right into the presence of Christ, as those four friends tore open the roof to lower the paralyzed man at His feet. You are doing that now with your prayers, and you may do it with a quiet confidence. Jesus sees the faith of those who bring the sufferer, and He answers with a word of peace before He answers with a healing touch. So do not let your heart grow heavy with the weight of it. Cast that weight on Him. The Shepherd carries the lambs, He does not drive them. He gathers them in His arms and holds them close, and your daughter is one of His lambs.
Perhaps you have felt that if only you could hear Him say, “Your sins are forgiven you; rise up and walk,” all would be well. But remember that forgiveness is already yours in Christ, and healing is already His to give. The leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations, and they have not withered. They are still green, still potent, still held out in the hand of the risen Lord. He who took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses has not lost His pity nor His power.
So keep looking to Him. Keep speaking His name in the quiet of the night when sleep is far from your daughter and from you. The Lord who touched the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law so that she rose and served them, He will visit your house too. And when that hour comes, the long months of pain will seem but a little thing, swallowed up in the joy of His presence and the wonder of His mercy.
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Lord Jesus, we bring this beloved daughter before You. You know every vertebra, every nerve, every place where the ache has worn her down. Lay Your healing hand upon her back, we pray. Speak the word that silences pain and restores strength. Give this parent peace that passes understanding, a deep, unshaken quietness in the midst of the trial. Let them both taste Your faithfulness, and one day soon let them rise together with glad hearts to bear witness to Your goodness. For You are the great Physician, and we trust in You. Amen.