Chapter 5: The Lord Who heals

About the same time that we met the Dursleys, we received a report of Charlie's "trauma assessment" from the county.  It was beginning to feel as though every few days we learned more of his history and therefore how it related to his challenges today.  This was sobering information, and hard on our hearts.  How could it not be?  But we had other things to consider - namely our own little family, and how this would impact our children, particularly Grace, being only 10.

But God has been gracious in encouraging us.

That same weekend we went to church, our hearts pensive and cautious, heavy with the things we had learned.  We had a guest speaker and he taught from Psalms, rather than our current study in Judges.  Now, if you know me, you know that I am an avid note-taker during sermons, mostly because it helps me stay focused.  But since we had a guest speaker, since we weren't in our current series, and since I had heavy things on my heart, I didn't take notes that Sunday.  I didn't even listen much, to be honest.

But I did hear one thing, perhaps the thing I was most meant to hear. Our speaker began to talk about some of the Hebrew names of God and how those names reflect His attributes and character.  He mentioned two in particular - Jehovah Jireh and Jehovah Rapha.

Jehovah Jireh - the Lord who provides

Jehovah Rapha - the Lord who heals

It was the second that moved my heart.  I was reminded that our God is a healer.  He *is* Jehovah Rapha, the Lord Who heals.  He heals our hurts, He heals our diseases, He heals our broken spirits and restores us to Him.  He is a God of healing and restoration!

And our little boy is in need of this healing.

I will hope and pray for God's miraculous intervention in healing our Charlie.  I will pray that as we give him permanence and unconditional love, that he will be surrounded in an environment that is soothing to his soul.  I am asking God to heal him so that he can have a full life of joy and health and peace without being haunted by what was done to him.  And I am asking God to heal him quickly.

But I am not naïve.  I know that sometimes God works quickly and miraculously, but more often He does not.  His time frame is certainly not mine (or else He would have already returned, to say the least!).  Sometimes He works healing out over time, sometimes with time alone, sometimes with professional help.  This healing process with our Charlie may take - will probably take - years.  I'm praying it's quick.  I'm praying it's a year or less.  But I'm quite aware that it may take years.  It may take a lifetime.

And I'm also aware that sometimes we don't get complete healing while we are on this earth, that healing comes fully only by standing in the presence of God.  And I'm okay with that, too - because still, the Lord heals.  And my job in this process is to point Charlie to Jesus as long as I'm able to, so that he will know the Lord as his healer, be it here in our home, later in life, or as he stands with Jesus in eternity.

Jehovah Rapha - the Lord who heals.  Will you pray that Charlie comes to know God in that way?



(The picture is a page-in-progress from my coloring book.  Charlie loves to color, too.)