The Lord that Healeth

In Exodus 15, the children of Israel sing a song to the Lord, praising His power and His martial abilities. They rhapsodize about how thoroughly He crushed their enemies and they glory in His might. But at the end of the chapter, after days of no water they find some water but it is too bitter to drink and the Lord heals the waters. And through Moses the Lord reminds them, "I am the Lord that healeth." (Exodus 15:26). The Lord wanted them then and He wants us now to know that there is as much honor and majesty and glory, if not more so, in healing as there is in battle. Not all of life's problems can be solved by crushing our enemies at the bottom of the sea. The Lord won't always stretch forth His mighty hand and smite all of our problems in righteous fury. In order for His great Plan of Salvation to work, He can't fight all of our battles and He can't shield us from all harm. But He can heal all of our hurts and wounds, maybe not always as soon as we would like, but always in a way that is better than we could have hoped. It is exciting when God goes to war for us, but it can be tempting to expect Him to fight all of our battles for us. We do not obey God's commandments and exercise faith in Him because it will keep the hurt out but so that we can let the healing in. We have the choice to curse God because He allowed so much harm and evil to come upon us and deprive ourselves of all hope and healing, or we can in all humility acknowledge that we don't with our mortal minds comprehend the complex reasons why a Being who loves us more than we can begin to fathom would allow so much harm and evil to come upon us and we can with gratitude allow God into our hearts to heal us and to make us better.