A friend suggested God has three answers to prayer: yes, no, not yet. I would add: not as we imagine. I had prayed for physical healing for my father, but a different type of healing took place. My father had a difficult time expressing emotions and love. He showed his love by providing and caring for his family. As I grew up, I longed to hear my father say that he was proud of me, that he loved me. He just couldn’t say it. I had almost reconciled myself to the idea that I would never hear those words. Yet as his illness continued, he slowly became more involved in our lives and more emotionally engaged. One day he said he loved me. And he said it a couple more times before he died.
I see God’s healing and an answer to prayer in this development. If my father had been healed of cancer, he might not have looked at his life and pondered things he did not want to leave undone before he died. The healing was not of cancer, but of a part of our relationship. That healing remains even years after my father’s death.
This message is excerpted from “Prayer changes things” by Ann Fritschel in the July/August 2018 Gather magazine.
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