Spiritual Themes>Healing and Forgiveness|Quest Article

When my dad was a kid, his father had a stroke. Everyone in their church clucked their tongues. It’s too bad, they said, that God had seen fit for that to happen.

Today, howling winds, too often heard in these parts, tear through the glass windows sealed for comfort. Incorrigible.

Don’t speak to me of “healing” racism,
Or “wounded souls” or the “painful hurt”
Until you are willing to look at my skin

I told someone with a long-term illness—in this person’s case, chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)—that I was writing a column on healing. Healing, she said. I’ve come to dislike that word intensely.

For most of my childhood and adult life, I had been very dismissive of miracles portrayed in the New Testament, including the healing stories.