The little girl whose healing hurt

In the last post I offered to tell you a story. Here it is. I heard it years ago, and it has stayed with me.  You could call it a parable.

A small town was struck with a disease that left its victims crippled.  Among the affected were two little girls.  Susie came from a wealthy family; Betsy lived with her grandmother, who was quite poor.  Both the girls were devastated by this affliction, and their families tried to find the best way to help them.
                                                      

Susie's parents took her to a doctor who fitted her with leg braces.  With the braces, she could walk again!

  
Whenever Betsy saw Susie, she felt jealous, and asked her grandmother to buy her braces, too. But there wasn't enough money.
                                   

 

What her grandmother could and did do was massage Betsy's legs and feet every day, trying to strengthen the muscles.  How it hurt!  Betsy cried when she went through what was, for her, a daily torture.  She thought she'd never be able to walk...or run...or jump and play again.

Little by little, Betsy's legs grew stronger and straighter. Finally the day came when she could walk...then run...then jump and play outside with her friends!  With her grandmother's persistence, she had overcome the disease that had crippled her.  She was free!

  Then one day when she was walking through town, she caught sight of Susie. She saw that Susie still wore her leg braces. She could still walk, slowly and laboriously, but she couldn't run...or jump and play. Her muscles had atrophied because they hadn't been used for so long. What had seemed like such an immediate, easy and wonderful way to help Susie had turned into a prison for her.


Betsy's jealousy turned to pity, and she appreciated the pain her grandmother had put her through every day, realizing that, in the end, she was the one who had been blessed and restored.

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I have to admit that it's hard to be "patient in affliction" (Romans 12:12).  Like Betsy, our hindsight is much better than our foresight, isn't it?  After it's all over, we can see how much we learned, grew and developed through the trial.

It's also hard to "consider it pure joy...whenever you face trials of many kinds"...but the verses continue, "because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."  (James 1:2-4)

Having come through the pain of difficulties, trials and challenges, like Betsy we can put aside any discouragement and jealousy, and realize that we, too, have been blessed and restored, and that the pain we've gone through has made us stronger.
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Since this post is long enough already, I'll continue sharing our Journey with you next time.  Until then, God bless you!!