The Bone Collector
Did you see in the press release from the Vatican that according to carbon dating the bones in the tomb of St Paul are St Paul? I wonder if they found the "thorn in the flesh" that Paul talked about buried along with him? But then of course Paul was talking figuratively about that infirmity he endured that God seemed not to deliver him from.
Yesterday after the 11:00 service I offered a time of healing and anointing. I expected 5 or 10 people. Over 50 came. There are a lot of "thorns in the flesh" out there. I am still praying for those dear people who knelt in front of me as I made the sign of the cross on their waiting foreheads with the words, "May God's healing grace be upon your life." It is always overwhelming for me to share this time of healing with people.
I have learned that I am not in charge of what happens after people arise from their posture of prayer but I know that God always gives some form of grace and healing. Paul "in his bones" did not quite understand why God did not deliver him from his own thorn in the flesh but he struggled to believe in spite of the suffering he endured. Paul seemed to experience a form of healing grace even though he was not "cured."
This same man whose bones now for sure lie somewhere beneath some monument later wrote that "now" we only see through a glass darkly but one day we shall see "face to face" and we shall know as we have been known. Until then, "May God's healing grace be upon your life."
jody