Thoughts for the Day

When Jesus came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.

Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, 'Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.' The official said to him, 'Sir, come down before my little boy dies.' Jesus said to him, 'Go, your son will live.' The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, 'Yesterday at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.' The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, 'Your son will live.' So he himself believed.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

I can remember the exact time when my eldest son learnt that his father couldn't do everything. As a small child he expected his father to be able to sort out all his problems, but the day we went to the circus things changed. On the way out we bought him a gas filled balloon, and he left happily holding it on a string. Of course the inevitable happened, and the balloon flew up into the night sky. Well there was wails of distress but Dad could do nothing. He couldn't even buy a new balloon as the circus had closed.

The palace official in our story discovered there was no-one who could heal his son. But there was another possibility for him, and he went to the man who had turned water into wine. Despite the fact that Jesus doesn't go to his house, we are told the man 'believed the word that Jesus spoke to him'. He returned home confident that the boy was healed!

When human help fails we need to turn to God, the only one who can help. But it would be more sensible to turn to Him immediately there is a problem, for God works through human hands as well - the hands of our doctors.

Lord God,
today we pray for all
those who work in our
health service -
for doctors and nurses,
and for all support staff.
We also pray for all who are sick
and especially for those undergoing
operations this day.
We ask for Your healing power
to be upon all for whom we pray.
Amen.