Begging for Healing

 When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.
 Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee. John 4:43-54

I spent a good deal of time with a friend in Urgent Care yesterday. No matter how they call it, fast, urgent or emergency, there is never any fast or urgent about it. Like everything in life, there is paperwork to fill out and waiting to be done. I was thinking while I waited for my friend, how blessed we were to have somewhere to go for the help, and people who could respond to the need. Despite the waiting, there was medicine to be had. Sometimes in life there is no fix, no matter what we try to do, and waiting on God in intense prayer can be hard.

A desperate father came to Jesus for healing. He had walked for many miles, having heard that Jesus was closer by than he had been. His heart ached for his child. He had been told there was nothing to be done and no medicine to cure his child. Such anguish and heart ache. The father believed the promise from Jesus, and rushed home all those miles, only to be greeted by his slaves, carrying a message of good news. The man's faith carried his exhausted body back and forth to Jesus. We are called to carry our needs in prayer, despite our exhaustion, our pain, our sorrow, there is a promise to find Jesus on the road.

Today, I ask the Creator, God of all time and space, to help me be like that desperate father. May I believe despite the overwhelming circumstances, the pain and the rough roads. May we journey always in hope, knowing Jesus promises to meet us on the road and in our deepest sorrow.