Several of our Scripture readings for January and February are healing stories from the Gospel of Mark. We marvel at the miracles of Jesus, yet sometimes wonder why we see so few miraculous healings in our time and place, because Jesus gave His disciples power to heal the sick; and because healing occurs in many of the lists of spiritual gifts that we find in the Apstle Paul's letters, especially.

We pray regularily for those in our community, family, and frinds who are ill, and occaisonally we hear about someone who has been healed from what was supposed to be a termial illness or whose healing has come so quickly and completely that doctors are baffled. There is much power in the prayers of God's faithful people, and sometimes we are not so quick to recognize the healing that occurs in response to our prayers. For instance, often our illnesses are made much worse by the anxiety and helplessness that both the sick person and the family are experiencing. At those times our prayers may be used by God to calm troubled hearts and souls so the body's healing powers are unleashed and enhanced.

Again, our prayers may lead to wisdom and knowledge for the doctors and others who are trying to diagnose and treat the person, and so the course of the disease is shortened and arrested by that additional knowledge that only God could provide. And we live in a time when miraculous cures come from drugs, surgeries, and inventions such as pacemakers that were unheard of just a few years or a few decades ago.

I think of the devices that have come from Medtronic Corporation over the past 50 years or so. Medtronic was begun by two men who grew up in the congregation I called home for the bast 30 years. Earl Bakken and his friend started a business repairing X-ray machines out of a garage. But conversations with heart specialists at the Universty of Minnesota led to the invention of the first external pacemaker; later the first implantable pacemaker. Now, Medtronic makes and sells much more advanced devices to treat heart problems, diabetes, and Parkinson's disease, just to name a few. The marvels of modern medicine are often God's answers to the ills we experience, but the power of prayer lies behind each healing. Thank God for all the marvels he has provided; thank Him too for the miraculous healings that still occur in answer to every prayer.

God is still in the business of healing, and He uses our prayers to provide that healing. Thanks be to God!