God's Healing Power

God’s Healing Power

Jan Ramsey

In the fall of 1999, I became interested in the healing power of faith while visiting my sister, Missy, in Winter Park, Florida.  We attended a healing service at All Saints Episcopal Church, and it made a lasting impression on me.  Because my sister and I were very close and daughters of a minister who taught the power of prayer, attending this service with her brought us even closer together.

About that same time, I read the book, The Healing Power of Faith, written by Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center of Spirituality, Theology and Health at Duke University.  This book reinforced the motivation I received at All Saints.  In the fall of 2000, at my home church in Mississippi, I helped to organize a “healing weekend,” to be held in the spring of 2001.  I emailed Dr. Koenig inviting him to speak to our congregation.  To my surprise, he replied to me immediately agreeing to travel to Mississippi for our weekend.  However, my hopes were dashed when I learned about Dr. Koenig’s long and distinguished curriculum resume, and about his high fee.  I knew our church could not afford him.  Serendipitously, while working on a church committee with a faculty member from the Mississippi University Medical Center, I learned that he was also looking for a speaker.  Our timing coincided perfectly with the medical school’s annual symposium for new students. (At this time, medical schools began to focus on spirituality as one way to treat patients.)   Graciously Dr. Koenig agreed to speak at both the MUMC symposium as well as our church’s healing weekend.  Amazingly, the school paid for half of Dr. Koenig’s fee, and the complicated schedule fell into place.  Surely, God’s hand was evident to us all!

In September of 2000, my dear sister Missy and her husband Jimmy were killed in a plane crash.  Thankfully, their two daughters were grown and not with them.  While I knew God did not cause or plan this horrific event, I also knew that He was ever present in our suffering.  Nevertheless, all of our family churned in grief and turmoil as we grappled with the aftermath of the tragedy. 

Missy and Jimmy had lived very full lives, raised two beautiful daughters, travelled the world, and were loved by friends and family.  They were also valuable contributors to their community.   I heard from well-meaning friends questioning — “Why?”   Why and how could such a tragedy happen to such a young and vital couple with so much more life to live and give?  I can honestly say that practical answers come easily — because of Jim’s love of flying and the many hours they spent in the air.  

Sometimes I think when we ask, “Why, Oh God?”, we’re really like children throwing tantrums demanding, “I want my cake and to eat it too, and…a second helping, please!”   Why do we take lives fore granted until we lose them?  Each life is a gift.   

The appropriate response to a gift, even when it is taken away, is gratitude.  When I remember this truth, I am personally able to change my focus and to thank God for Missy’s beautiful life and legacy.

When I returned to Mississippi after the funeral, I continued to give thanks in spite of my grief as I dealt with the loss.  And I then resumed my preparations for the healing weekend.

The healing symposium took place in the spring of 2001, and became even more meaningful and comforting to me.

On a trip to Florida later in 2001, I again attended a healing service at All Saints.  I sat in the very same pew where my sister Missy and I had sat. During the passing of the peace*, the woman sitting beside me introduced herself.  Her name was Missy.  I was astonished, and told her my sister’s name was Missy….actually Margaret Melissa.  Her name was also Margaret Melissa!  At that moment, my eyes drifted up and across the entire body of believers.  I realized that I still had a sister, and a family in the Body of Christ.  I was deeply comforted.  I remembered the words from The Life of the World to Come, by Carol Zaleski.

“Every death, every bitter separation, every uncharted change we face is part of the price we must pay for our share in the deifying light, which confers fullness of life and clarity of vision. It is a terrible price, but God paid it first, and that is our comfort.  This does not make the universe a friendly place. It is still vast beyond comprehension.  There is no security except in knowing that however far and fast we fall, there is God beneath us; we are falling into God’s arms.”