by J. Vetter,
Guest Contributor

“Oh, Lord, take your super glue and glue my bone together.” This was one of my first prayers after fracturing a bone in my foot. At the time, I did think it was sort of a silly prayer until I read the paperwork from my emergency room visit. It stated, “When a bone heals, the body puts a CALLUS together across the piece that is broken. This callus is made of new bone material and will eventually melt or glue the two broken pieces together.” What a sweet reassurance that the Lord was indeed with me in my pain, even in the formulation of my seemingly strange prayer.

Being forced to reduce my activities gave me time to reflect on the word, “broken,” and the pain involved. I realized my foot would eventually heal and the pain would then be just a memory, or maybe even forgotten. However, there are many people living with various degrees of brokenness–a broken relationship, broken health, or even being brokenhearted–all of which can be covered by God’s supernatural ability to heal.

My natural belief is that a bone progressively heals. My belief, as a Christian, is that God adds His “super” to the natural, and things that are impossible or difficult have a greater ability to heal when faith is released.

In the Bible narrative of the beggar man, who was lame from his mother’s womb, he was told, “In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!” The story relates that immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength, and he began to walk and leap. This is the “super” element added to that poor man’s body. He was carried along and set down daily at the gate of the temple, so this man required assistance to even get there. His muscles hadn’t been exercised. This was not a progressive healing–it was a miracle. And it was brought about by two of Jesus’ disciples who were bold enough to believe that God could raise the man up. How many of us have seen this today? How many of us even believe it could happen?

I couldn’t help but compare the word, “callus,” (used for good–to bring healing to my bone) with the word, “callous,” which means hardened in mind, or unfeeling. My journey toward healing included much soul searching as to what I expected from my faith. It’s easy not to have very high expectations. Then there is no disappointment in God. However, the struggle to boost my faith to believe in God’s supernatural ability came with a sinister, mocking voice, “Has God really said?”

A few months before fracturing the bone in my foot, I had been running across the street with my schnauzer on his leash at night and tripped over the curb and landed flat on my face. It was a miracle I didn’t break much more, but I did find out I had broken a bone in my wrist. However, before I knew it was broken, I believed for healing; and by the time it was x-rayed, the family doctor said it looked like an old break. Then suddenly the pain went away, and I never followed up with the orthopedic doctor. So later, as I struggled with the pain in my foot, how easy it was to forget this previous incident of my God’s goodness and power.

Perhaps, it is like the disciples. Having seen the miracle of Jesus breaking the five loaves of bread to feed 5,000 people, they were still upset because they had forgotten to take bread and only had one loaf with them. Jesus spoke some heartbreaking words to them. He said, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? And do you not remember?” We can end up with a calloused heart when we stop believing that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We can be fresh from a miracle and still not perceive that our God can do it again!

J. Vetter

Acts 3:1-8 and
Mark 8:13-21