A powerful reflection on what was a traumatic experience of one NMSI missionary family, who were recently at a point of almost losing their little son to a disease while serving in Asia.  We give thanks to God for the healing and a very young life spared, and invite you lift up in prayer all missionaries serving around the world.

“When we* do culture training, we often recommend against asking ‘why’ questions.  They usually come off as accusatory and go along the lines of “Why don’t people drive between the lines here?”  “Why do you let people have so many guns?”  We often do the same things with prayer and God.  “Why do we have to go through this?  Why did God heal him?  Why didn’t He heal someone else?”  The truth is that I find myself wanting to judge God.  It is also true that my understanding and vision for the world is pathetically small.  I’m glad I’m not in charge.

I hope that my wife and I would have seen His hand as clearly and been just as grateful for Him if our son wasn’t coming home with us.  As my wife said, “If we had lost our son, we don’t know where else we could have turned other than God.”

I also find myself looking for patterns or trying to understand how to cause God to respond in certain ways.  Maybe you just have to get enough people to pray?  Maybe if you pray when kneeling?  Maybe if you believe enough?  Maybe if you mix a little hair in a potion of toad liver oil and goat’s blood?  That’s really what we want from God—magic.  Magic can be controlled, manipulated, abused.

I’m thankful that we serve a God who is really God, who cannot be manipulated by any man.”