All of us are well aware it is flu and cold season in our part of the world. It’s almost impossible to escape its clutches and many people suffer through a series of ailments for months. Yet how can we complain when so many suffer with more serious illnesses that take extensive treatments to cure, if at all? Pain and suffering are part of human life.
Statistics Canada says that we fill 300 million drug prescriptions a year (2005 figures), which works out to roughly 10 for each man, woman and child – or 3 billion dollars worth! That’s a lot of medicine to help us fight painful conditions.
In John’s final New Testament book, he describes “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev.21:2). Most people think he is writing about heaven; others believe it is a figurative picture of the church protected by God. Perhaps it is the latter but foreshadowing the former. My point is that He promises “there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away” (v4). Can you imagine an existence with no pain? John seems to imply there will be no more sickness either. At the very least, we understand that pain will be absent from heaven. Wouldn’t that be nice!
This is not just pie in the sky. Jesus successfully healed people from their illnesses and pain every day. He was the Great Physician, and He knew what He was talking about. One of my favorite passages in the New Testament is Matthew 4:23-25. “And Jesus was going about in all Galilee…healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people…all who were taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.”
Looking forward to a time when there will no longer be any pain helps us deal with our own struggles in life for the present time.
Relief is coming!
– Tim Johnson