Dear Ones,
Hope you had a great weekend!! Love this beautiful mild weather and the snow has once again melted. Today I plan to bake cookies and go to Aldi’s and my Exercise class.
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Not everything gets fixed in our lives and not everyone gets healed, for the Lord is sovereign and wise to know what is best so that each one to will bring glory to His Father. We have a tendency to believe that someone with disabilities should be fixed and healed, but perhaps life in a wheelchair brings Him more glory, like that of Joni Eareckson Tada. She has helped so many as she teaches and preaches from her wheelchair, and has also sent wheelchairs to those in need all over the world… and yet she has to be very dependent on others for her daily needs.

We may like to think of ourselves as independent, self-made people, but the truth is we are made for communion with God and to care and love one another. We become whole together, not as separate beings. A Scottish professor of theology, John Swinton, writes how Adam lost a rib to make relationship possible with Eve. The first incision was made from love not caused by sin, and it was the cost of communion with another.

Not all people are healed and their suffering is very real, but not without hope, for one day Jesus will wipe away all mourning and pain will cease. (Rev. 21:4). We wait for the day when we will all be whole, living without pain and suffering. But in this life Jesus didn’t always choose to heal, and He Himself had scars from his crucifixion. Swinton, a former nurse and mental health chaplain, recognized how disability doesn’t negate our belovedness as a person. The message from the church sometimes has been that people with disabilities are a problem to be resolved and often they feel excluded. But even when included, they want to be received as part of God’s good creation. Others can learn from them, seeing God’s power made perfect in weakness. (II Cor. 12:9)

Challenge for today: Ask the Lord how you can help others be included in the Body of Christ and what you can learn from them.

Blessings on your week and prayers and love, Judy