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Sickness and Healing - Healing affects us more deeply than sickness.
If we become ill, we seek to get better. Since healing presupposes sickness, we do not usually think about healing except under conditions of poor health. And while it is true that we can be proactive in terms of our health by doing things like exercising regularly or eating and drinking healthily, healing is for those who are sick. Healing, then, would seem to have a negative association with sickness and therefore not be an attractive subject for our consideration. However, reflecting on healing can reveal welcome blessings and insights that enhance our appreciation for the gift of life in whatever condition might be ours at this time.
Just as we recognize goodness by contrast with whatever is bad and are usually more appreciative of sunshine after a rainstorm than by two successive sunny days, we are often more aware, for example, of being able to walk after we have been healed from a sprain or other injury. We often become consciously grateful, at least for a short time, for some capability that is restored through healing than we had been before we suffered illness or injury.
Most of us would find it more than difficult to be grateful for a sickness or wound itself, but we often become thankful when healing or betterment of our condition takes place. Sometimes, usually in retrospect, we have been able to see how a temporary health setback had unforeseen benefits for us. One common experience is that of an illness that required us to refrain from our normally busy routines and became the occasion for getting some rest that we had not recognized as a necessity or turned out to be the circumstance that led to a relationship with someone or a very meaningful insight.
When we think of healing, we naturally think of being restored to our former state of health. However, some very significant healing can take place as soon as we open ourselves to God. Just as children begin healing the moment a loving parent or other caring person attends to them, our situation always becomes more bearable when someone who cares for us reaches out to us, visits us, or accompanies us with true compassion. For those of us who turn to God, who is already present in us and with us, this Presence affirms us as being as valuable and loved no less in our sickness than when we were in the best of health.
Sickness and healing are not necessarily opposites, but can be complementary, even helping us move closer to fulfillment of our purpose in life.
Last Updated 1/10/2026