Taken Care Of or Just Ok?

A while back I was spending some time with a friend who has a child. While I was there, through a series of events, that in hindsight was inevitably going lead to this conclusion but at the time seemed unconnected, the child got electrocuted. Just to put everyone’s mind at ease the child is fine and there are no lasting effects, but at the time we did not know that. 

My friend, the child’s father, hopped quick into action doing a basic run down of diagnostic checks on the child and came to the conclusion that the child may be injured beyond his ability to help. He took the child and gave them a blessing and called 911. 

During the blessing he said “I bless you that you will be taken care of” and while we talked after the blessing and before that the ambulance got there, he said to me that though he strongly wanted to he could not say that the child would be ok, but only that they would be taken care of. It is upon this that I would like to speak today. 

Now my friend found this distressing, if the Spirit restrained him from saying the child would be “ok” did that mean that the child would not be ok? In hindsight we can see that is not the case, but at the time he was distraught. In response I felt a strong impression to tell him that the child would be ok, so I did. Im not sure to what extent my words brought comfort if at all, but share them I did. 

But as I thought about it later a singular thought churned in my mind: why couldn’t he say the child would be ok? The child was ok in the end, so why not? After thinking on it long and hard I think I have an answer. Well really two. To start we must realize the Lord knows the end from the beginning as we learn in Isaiah chapter 46. He knew my friend’s child was going to be ok. As we learn in Romans chapter 8, all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and that must be the case here. But, as we learn in D&C 121 and 122 the things that work out to be for our good and experience are not always pleasant to endure, nevertheless we must strive to endure them well. 

With that in mind I submit the following answers to my friend and why they could not say the child would be ok.

First it is a trial of faith. Do you have the faith not to be healed? Elder Bednar has a talk on this and I’ll not repeat his points but I would direct you to Daniel chapter 3. 

In this chapter Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah (called Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego) are confronted with an awful situation. In short, they must either choose to bow down and worship a fake god or suffer death by fire. We know the choice they made, they refused to bow down and Nebuchadnezzar prepared the furnace to burn them. 

 “If it be so, our God whom we serve, is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up” 

The second half of that is faith not to be saved and not to be healed. Even if the Lord does not save we will still be His. That is their response, and that is the opportunity my friend and I also now had. If the Lord does not heal the child, are we still His? I know this is a hard principle, but when we remember that God is not as we are and this life is infinitesimal compared to the life we will have with Him, and when we consider He knows the end from the beginning it is a lot less hard of a doctrine. Sometimes we have to endure hard things to become who the Lord needs us to be. And by stopping my friend from saying that the child will be ok, we are confronted with a choice to either hold fast to the Lord or not. 

But this is only part of the answer. That covers the not being able to say that the child will be ok, but does not address what was impressed to be said instead. “You will be taken care of” this was a source of stress to my friend, he could only see this as an acknowledgment that their child would be disabled for the rest of their life, and that he would take care of them. But having pondered much on it I believe my friend has interpreted this wrong. 

Let us start with who was talking. When giving a blessing and follow the inspiration of the Spirit we are speaking with the Tongue of Angels as we learn in 2 Nephi 31 and as we learn in 2 Nephi 32 those who speak with the tongue of Angels speak the Words of Christ. “You will be taken care of” are not the words of my friend but those of the Christ, He who created the heavens and earth, and all things that in them are. 

The Alpha and the Omega, the God of all Creation, and he says that the child will be taken care of not my friend. 

A plea to be ok pales in comparison to the promise of being taken care of from on high. 

But I can understand why this was not my friends first thought, it was not mine either. It took time to think on and ponder about to see this. This was a conflict between what my friend and I thought best and what the Lord knew to be best. And I think that is the second thing we are to learn from this. God’s ways are not our ways. Where my friend sought to obtain a promise that his child would be ok, he received a promise that they would be taken care of, but him and I were unable to see it as such at that time.

The reminds me a bit of Lazarus as found in John chapter 11. As you know Lazarus was sick and his sisters, Mary and Martha, came to beseech Jesus to heal their brother. But Jesus purposefully delayed and Lazarus died. But that is not the end of the story, Jesus then comes to Mary and Martha “if you had been here, he would not have died” they pleaded, and then Jesus does the impossible and raises Lazarus from the dead. And the scriptures say of the account “then many of the people who had come with Mary and Martha, had seen the things that Jesus did, believed in Him”

In the same way my friend sought for a blessing that his child would be ok, Mary and Martha sought that their brother would be healed of his sickness. But that is not what needed to happen. Lazarus’ ordeal was designed to lead “to God’s Glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” and I believe the same goes for the ordeal my friend went through. God blessed the child that they would be taken care of and left room for our faith to grow so that in the end Many that were with my friend believe more fully in Christ.

The question is what do we do with this? Is it just an interesting anecdote? Or the next time we are in a scary situation and reach out for help to the Lord and it seems like he says no, perhaps we will remember the Glory of God and take faith that though Lazarus died he lived again, though my friend’s child was hurt they were taken care of, and though the cross on good Friday is a dark time the Easter morning does come.

“[Jesus said] I have told you these things that you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage – I have conquered the world” John 16:33

To my friend, if you are reading this, I hope you take courage and are not offended by this post. I know this was a very scary time for you, but as we look back on it through the lens of spirituality, we can see the Lord’s hand in it. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. It just may be harder to see than we would like.

In Jesus name Amen.

As always, I’m praying for thee; please pray for me.