The other night I was listening in on a conversation which involved the family member of a young child battling cancer. The family member expressed the sentiment that it is God's will to heal this child, it's just a matter of whether He does it instantaneously or over the long-term. I didn't speak up at the time, which I still don't know if I should have given the situation, but I believe that this is an incredibly dangerous view for several reasons.
The first has to deal with God's will. I do strongly believe that some Christians can sense God's will and that it is our joy and duty to strive after it. From what I heard in the conversation, however, the family member of the sick child was basing this sense off of the idea that God did not create cancer. It was not what He wanted and thus He would fix the problem. To this, I would simply respond that God did not want death to ever occur to anybody. Yet as we all know, death does occur in this world, even to Christians who have prayed for healing. Sometimes, focusing on what we think is God's will can cause us to lose our sight on what He is doing in and through the situation.
A few weeks ago, my pastor expressed that death is not the worst thing that can happen to your child. Death is not the worst thing that can happen to any Christian, losing our faith and relationship with God completely is.
What happens then, when we hope and pray for healing, wait for it, and death sometimes occurs? If we hold to the examples of Jesus healing, and of other miraculous healings since then, and hold onto those while forsaking those who were not healed in this world what then?
Let us remember that the Lord has given, and the Lord takes away.
Our death on earth is not the end of our story by any means.
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