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Be Not Afraid Healingeveryone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and tohim who knocks, the door will be opened.”To someone who has experienced healing orwitnessed it in another person, these words of Jesusare not a mere promise, but an undeniable reality. Tosomeone who has not, on the other hand, they mayarouse frustration. What about the spouse or parentor child who is prayed over day after day, but then diesanyway? What about the person who seems to havebeen healed, only to be snatched away later? (Thishappened to Edith, by the way: eight years after herbrush with death, she died of a ruptured appendix.)Reflecting on such questions, I have no answers. ButI do have a few thoughts, the first being that to set one’shopes on miracles and wonders is to set oneself up fordisappointment. Optimism is a powerful medicine, butit can’t undo the laws of nature or the will of God. It istrue that when we act in faith, miracles do occur. But asthe Swedish thinker Dag Hammarskjöld once observed,the consequence is that in clinging to such happenings,we are “tempted to make miracles the ground for ourhope…and thus lose the confidence of faith.”Further, no matter the apparent effectiveness (orineffectiveness) of our prayers, I believe we shouldstill turn to God and believe that he hears us. And indoing so we should not forget that though most of ushabitually focus, in our prayers, on telling him our11