The prayer you have offered is a sweet-smelling sacrifice, rising to the throne of the Most High. The bruised reed He will not break, and the smoking flax He will not quench. Your cry has entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and He will not turn a deaf ear to the voice of a parent pleading for their child.
Consider the leaves of the tree of life, which are for the healing of the nations. Jesus Christ and Him crucified is that tree, and even the least thing about Him, the smallest leaf, is full of healing virtue. The Sun of Righteousness has risen with healing in His wings, and His beams scatter every malady. When He walked among men, the power of the Lord was present to heal, and it was when He was teaching that the healing flowed most freely. Bring your son beneath the sound of the gospel, for faith comes by hearing, and the message of pardon and healing is one and the same. He who said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee,” also said, “Arise, take up thy bed, and walk.” The pardon and the cure are joined in His blessed hand.
Perhaps in this affliction there is a looking to Jesus which has been neglected before. The Lord’s look upon Peter brought a bitter but healing repentance, and then full restoration. Even so, the very sickness of the body may be used of the Lord to sever your son from the crowd and fasten his eyes on Christ. Physical healing is a lesser mercy compared to the washing away of sin, but the great Physician is able to do both. He took our sicknesses and infirmities upon Himself; the bitter medicine was all drained by Him at Golgotha. There is therefore no disease beyond the reach of His atoning sacrifice. The healing of the body is a leaf from that tree; it is not the fruit, yet it is full of sap and virtue.
Do not think that your son’s restoration is a matter of doubt if he be a child of the covenant. The Lord will not cast off for ever those He loves; He will bind up the broken heart and heal its wounds. If the boils of Job were healed, and the issue of blood stanched, and the eyes of the blind opened, why should the inflamed esophagus or the blocked lung defy His power? Pray on, but pray in faith, believing that the Lord Jesus is as willing as He is able. And while you wait, let the lad himself seek the Lord’s face. A look from Jesus can do more than a thousand doses of medicine. It was a look that saved Peter, and a look can restore your son to health and to God.
Yet if the healing tarry, still trust. The very delay may be a leaf of healing for the soul, teaching patience and weaning from the world. Eternal health is secured for all who are in Christ; these temporary afflictions are but the coughs and colds of the body that will soon give way to the perfect restoration of the resurrection. In the meantime, the Lord guide the physicians and bless the means. But lean chiefly on Him who needs no scalpel or draught to work His will. The leaves of His grace are ever green, and for you and your son they have been ordained before the foundation of the world. May the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon him, and give him peace.