Sickness ~30 Days of Thanksgiving day 23

Is sickness ever a good thing? Is it possible to be thankful for something so unpleasant?

John 9:2-3 His disciples asked him, saying Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

To start with, here’s the thing about being sick: Since we have mortal bodies that will eventually die, sickness is inevitable.  Sickness is a result of something getting into our bodies that shouldn’t be there. Or a result of something not working right.

Sometimes being sick is how our body tells us something is wrong. Take a fever for instance: When we get a fever, our body is telling us not that we have an infection, but it’s actually telling us that our body is fighting off the infection.  When we have a stomach bug and are throwing up, or exploding out the back end, our body is simply eliminating something that doesn’t belong.

If we never got a fever to kill off infections, or threw up to get rid of something bad, is it possible the toxins would quickly kill us?

That’s just one thought on being sick.

Here’s another: The bible reference I mentioned above has always been a bit intriguing to me. Here is a man who has physically suffered with blindness from birth. In the time he lived in, he had only one option to survive, and that was to beg. All his life, he has suffered the judging questions of people who wonder what horrible sin he or his parents committed, that caused him to be blind. He also had to depend on the charity of those same people just to survive.

I suppose he probably believed he or his parents sins caused him to be blind. Maybe he wondered what he had done to deserve this blindness. Then Jesus comes.

When Jesus comes, things always change. Imagine being this blind man and hearing, probably for the first time in his life, that is wasn’t sin that caused him to be blind. Then he hears more, Jesus says that he was blind so that God’s glory could be manifested in him!

Can you imagine? In one statement, this man learns that his sickness wasn’t his sin, but for God’s glory!

While I fully understand that there are sicknesses that come as a result of sin; I also believe that if God wills it so, he can use anyone’s sickness to His glory.

So I wish to remain healthy; but if sickness comes, I hope I can remember to thank God, that he made my body in a way that it can heal itself. I also hope I can remember that God can use my sickness to his glory.