Hands laid on - with a difference

The people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness and, laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Luke 4:40

A friend of mine recently experienced a little miracle of healing through the laying on of hands. That in itself is special enough, but this was also a healing with a difference, so to speak. See what you think.

For a couple of months George had been seriously troubled with pain in the shoulder area, bad enough especially to interfere with his sleep and generally to drag him down. His doctor had suggested pain-killers.

His faith is rock-solid - he has been a Christian for many years - so he is not naive about the mystery of why God does or does not heal in any given situation. But the pain was severe enough on the night of our home-group for him to mention it and to ask for prayer. So of course we obliged. One person in the group prayed a very short, very matter-of-fact prayer that George might be healed.

That was on Thursday evening. On Friday morning he rang to say that the pain was gone. 

Great! But what about the laying on of hands? Well, this is where the specially interesting bit comes in.

When he woke up on Friday morning George was aware of somebody’s hand on his head. And it wasn’t his wife’s. And - sorry if this disappoints you - neither was it Jesus or an angel standing by the bed. No, it was his own hand resting on his head. There was also a strong sense of a supernatural presence in the room.

Do you ever put your hands on your head when you’re in bed? No, neither does George - and in fact it was something he wouldn’t have been capable of anyway, even if he had wanted to. 

But that’s how it was. And the pain was gone. So too was any of the strain and tension which pain brings. He felt a beautiful peace.

I wondered if perhaps by unconsciously moving his arm in this unusual way some long-tense muscle or something had been released, easing the pain. But George was quite happy to see it as a straight answer to prayer. And why not? After all, we believe that God can, and sometimes does, work miracles, don’t we?

I imagine that George’s miracle is pretty much a one-off. But it occurred to me that there are cases in the New Testament where miracles happen in an otherwise unknown way, and God acts in a manner that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.

In Mark 7:33 Jesus heals a man who was both deaf and mute: “he put his fingers into the man’s ears (!).Then he spat (!) and touched the man’s tongue (!)...” How strange! (And this was done privately, away from the crowd, so there was no question of teaching people some special lesson.)

In the following chapter, verse 23, Jesus again spits, this time on a blind man’s eyes, in order to start a healing process which he then completes by putting his hands on the man’s eyes.

In John 9 another blind man has his sight restored, and in this case we are even given the details that Jesus spat on the ground (yuck!), squished it around to make mud (double-yuck!) and put the mud on the man’s eyes (triple-yuck!).

This, remember, is the Jesus who could heal without so much as a touch! - indeed, even at a distance! So why these strange actions? Answer: we don’t know. And who cares anyway?

It carries on in Acts. In 5:15, so great are the crowds pressing around the apostles that God uses Simon Peter’s shadow as an instrument of healing. In 19:12 “even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched Paul were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and evil spirits left them”.

All very interesting and exciting! But where exactly does it lead us?

If nothing else, it reminds us not to put God in a box. I read a book once called “Let God be God”, and perhaps that is a message we need. God is God, and he is free to act in whatever ways he chooses, yes, even using spit and mud.

When we pray, we often have an idea in our heads of how God might answer our prayer. Natural enough, I suppose. But we need to remember that he might well have other ideas altogether. 

And so the message is: Believe God can; believe God may; but don’t limit him as to how. Just have faith, leave the rest to him - and expect the unexpected!

Sovereign Lord God, forgive me if sometimes I limit you. Thank you that all the resources of the universe are at your finger-tips. Please enliven my faith so that I may know the joy of seeing you at work exactly how you please. Amen.