Hospital Blessing
On the radio today Focus on the Family featured the testimony of a 9-11 survivor. Dr. Dobson touched on the tough question of why are some prayers for God’s blessing answered when others are not? Why are some Christians saved from death and others are not? It occured to me that I use the word “blessed” incorrectly. I have been saying I feel blessed that my new baby girl Anna is in the hospital for such a simple, easily treatable urinary tract infection when so many others here at the hospital are concerned for much more serious illnesses. In reality, I am not only blessed for her getting well, but I would also be blessed if she were not getting well. Our idea of what is good is not always truely good. The book “The Shack” addresses this paradox when God challenges Mack’s sense of good vs evil. I met a lady today who is here with her son who has a tumor of bacteria less than three years after she lost her 6 week old baby girl at this very hospital. She is still proud to say she is a Christian. We don’t know God’s plan, but I think part of our job as His children is to trust that no matter what happens, we are blessed just because He is God. St. Ignatius said “we should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to dishonor, a long life to a short one, and so in all things we should desire and choose only those things which will best help us attain the end for which we are created” namely “to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord.” If we could have an eternal perspective, the temporal world would come much more into focus and we could say, I am blessed.
