A few months ago I broke my wrist at a ward combined youth activity (Feb. 2010). I fell while ice skating. It was a bad break, I believe I had 8 fractures all together. I felt blessed to have wonderful doctors and the best medical care to put everything back together as it should be. During the time when I was preparing for orthoscopic surgery, my parents came up to help out, and my Dad gave Becci and I blessings concerning out health. The thing that struck me most powerfully in my blessing was a statement that Dad made to me. He told me that I needn't feel pain from my broken wrist, that Christ had already suffered this pain for me, and that through faith in him, I need not suffer it. I found this amazing, and enlightening. I had sometimes heard that Christ bore all of our sins and infirmities, including health and physical pain upon Himself through the atonement, but I had not actually internalized this concept before. I found, indeed, that I did not feel any significant pain in my wrist from this injury, neither when the accident first happened, nor when they set the bone, or after the surgery. I was weak, and the cast was sometimes uncomfortable, but there was no wrist pain. This experience made me begin to ponder the healing powers of the Savior, and how they apply in our lives.
I began to think about how often the Savior healed people in the scriptures. Almost all of Christ's miracles in the scriptures have to do with healing. I remembered the serpent on the staff that was raised up for the Children of Israel to look upon to be healed from the poisonous bites of the serpents in the desert—I pondered how this was a symbol of Christ and how his atonement heals us. . 41 And he did straiten them in the wilderness with his rod; for they hardened their hearts, even as ye have; and the Lord straitened them because of their iniquity. He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.
I began to think of Christ as the great healer. I began to ponder on the ways that Christ heals, and the manner in which we access this healing power. It was obvious to me that everyone who goes through this life experience will encounter earthly trials that will leave them with physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual scars or wounds. These wounds may be the result of one's own sinful behavior, or the sinful behavior of another. They may be the result of physical or mental illness or injury. They may be caused by grief or tragedy. There are endless possibilities, but we are, I believe, all injured in some real sense by the experiences of this earth life. How then do we heal?
Many of our wounds are deeply buried in our hearts, minds, and souls. They are not all quickly healed by any means, but with patience and faith, with hope in Christ, and through His power to heal, we can become whole, clean, and without blemish. I recognize that not all healing will occur in this life. Some illness and handicap will linger with us throughout this earth life, but all sin, emotional trauma, and physical pain has in fact been atoned for by the Savior, and through His power we can become free of it. Most of it we can eliminate through faith, over the course of our current life's time. We can speed up this process by working towards it through accessing the Lord's atonement and using the repentance and forgiveness processes. What is our role in these processes?
He sent fiery flying serpents among them; and after they were bitten he prepared a way that they might be healed; and the labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.
I think that we expect it to be hard, or perhaps, even impossible for us to be forgiven, or to forgive another. I think that we lack understanding and faith in this matter. Indeed healing requires a process that can take time and effort on our part, but I think it is much simpler than we may lead ourselves to believe, and it is always possible. The key is faith. We have to have the faith to “look.” To believe enough to take the most simple of actions. The Lord is willing and able to take the pain away. He has already borne it for us. He has already paid the price. He has the power in his hands. He will heal us.
3 Nephi 7:22
. . .”they had been wrought upon by the spirit of god, and had been healed.”
Alma 15:8
. . .”If thou believest in the redemption of Christ thou canst be healed.”
Mosiah 14:5
. . .”But he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
I am grateful for the healing power of the Atonement, and I find that in my own life, I have been supported, strengthened, and yes, healed, by the power of Christ. I witness that it can be the same for each of us, no matter what our circumstances are. . .His hands are stretched out still.
3 Nephi 18:32
. . .”for unto such shall ye continue to minister, for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them.”
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