She Went Joyfully With Jesus

September 18

“Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you," Matthew 9:29.

Jesus has been called “the dear and glorious Physician.” Part of the attraction many people have to Him, in addition to the fact that He is Savior, is the reality that when He walked among us on the dusty streets of Galilee, He also extended His loving and mighty hand to heal and to deliver all who were oppressed by disease and every manner of affliction.

The question often becomes, ‘Why doesn’t Jesus always heal in response to the prayers of the faithful?’ The answer to that for most who profess faith in Him is simply, ‘I don’t know.’ But perhaps the following true story will shed a bit of light upon the quandary in which believers find themselves when this question is posed to them.

A beautiful young woman endured a difficult pregnancy at the mid-point of the Twentieth Century. When the time came for her child to be delivered, a cesarean surgery was required. Whether due to the ineptitude of the doctors or to some other undefined reason, the woman was in dire condition after her child was born.

One of the complications after the delivery was that she was left in a coma for several weeks. Later, she told of a visitation she had from the Lord Jesus during that time. When the doctors had given up hope of her restoration to normal life, toward the end of the duration of her comatose state, our Savior and Healer appeared to her.

She said His words to her were, “Would you like to come with Me?”

Her response was, “I would like to go with You, but will You let me stay to raise my baby?” He agreed.

Nine years later, the woman bore a second child and ten years after that she was diagnosed with a fatal disease. Many people prayed for her. They knew of her miraculous earlier recovery, but it was not to be.

After her death, her older child pondered the loss of this beloved and godly woman and concluded that this precious woman had entered a contractual agreement with God. She asked to be allowed to live until her baby grew up. She had not requested to be allowed to live to raise any subsequent children, consequently, her death occurred when her older child was 19 years old, but her younger child was only ten years old.

How many believers have made such bargains with the Lord that their families and acquaintances may or may not reflect upon at the times of their demise? Perhaps each of us has at some time posed a similar deal to the Holy One which He has honored.

One thing we can know with certainty is that everything He speaks is true. His promise is: “My word, which goes forth out of My mouth, shall not return to Me void but shall accomplish that which I please and prosper in the thing to which I send it,” Isaiah 55:11.

In the example given in this passage, Jesus promised the woman that she could raise her child, and she did. When she was dying, she reflected upon His words to her as she had done many times through her life. She did not fear death.

She did not complain about being taken at an early age. She said simply, “He gave me what He promised I would have; He allowed me nineteen years of life beyond His original plan because I asked Him for them." She trusted His goodness, she accepted His faithfulness, and she went joyfully with Jesus.