“Earth has no sorrow that heav’n cannot heal.”[i] This promise brings comfort and hope in times of distress. Life, with all its joy, also brings pain and anguish. When our hearts ache, we search for help and comfort.
The great 19th-century Danish artist Carl Bloch captured such a moment in his beautiful narrative painting Christ Healing the Sick at Bethesda.
Over 2,000 years ago in Jerusalem, multitudes of the blind, sick, and the disabled gathered at the pool of Bethesda to be healed. Among them was a certain man who had suffered with an infirmity for 38 years. Jesus had compassion on him and asked, “Wilt thou be made whole?” Perhaps because of so many dashed hopes and disappointments the sick man answered that he had no one to put him in the water. Jesus showed him another way. He blessed the man and said, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.” Immediately the man was healed.[ii]
We all need help and healing at times. Our infirmities may not be visible, but we, too, come to “the pool”–wounded and weary. We may be enshrouded by despair or blinded by discouragement, and then we feel the loving touch of another, the care and concern in a sincere offer to help. We partake of the healer’s art whenever someone offers a listening ear and a caring heart. And somehow we feel a little better.
The prophet Isaiah assured that “the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces.”[iii] He’ll offer the “oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”[iv] Hearts will find joy, and tears will stop flowing as we reach for heaven’s healing hand.
Program #3945
[i] “Come, Ye Disconsolate,” Hymns, no. 115.
[ii] See John 5:2–9.
[iii] Isaiah 25:8.
[iv] Isaiah 61:3.