Article July 15, 1967 Issue

God Is Willing: Are We?

EMILY LACEY

We read in the Bible that a leper once approached Christ Jesus "and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean."^{Matt. 8:2;} Jesus replied, "I will; be thou clean."

Our Master's answer was not the whim of a person who felt inclined to heal at that particular moment; it was a statement of Truth. It indicated his recognition of God's willingness to heal and bless. God, who is changeless and eternal Truth, is as available today as He was when Jesus walked the earth. God's ever-present law of divine healing has been revealed as Christian Science, and through the application of this law all of us may feel the power of divine Love's tender ministrations. Mrs. Eddy states, "Divine Love waits and pleads to save mankind—and awaits with warrant and welcome, grace and glory, the earth-weary and heavy-laden who find and point the path to heaven."^{Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 11;} It is not the nature of divine Love to withhold. The arms of Love are forever outstretched and willing to enfold us in their tender care.

Sometimes, engulfed by discord and inharmony, we may be tempted to lose sight of this wonderful truth and doubt God's willingness to heal. If such is our predicament, it may help us to consider another Biblical healing—that of the man at the pool of Bethesda. A helpless cripple for thirty-eight years, he seemed to consider his condition hopeless. Even the possibility of a dramatic and miraculous cure in the troubled waters was denied him. When Jesus saw him, he asked this simple and profound question: "Wilt thou be made whole?"^{John 5:6;} Evidently this man was willing, for he was restored to health.