Faith in Medicine? Autism Awareness Month-Day 7

Joni Earecksen Tada's devotional arrived this morning with this line embedded, "Gut-wrenching questions honor God." How true. And good, since 15 years into our journey, there are more questions than answers.

She continues, "Despair directed at God is a way of encountering him, opening ourselves up to the one and only Someone who can actually do something about our plight. And when, with our questions, we either collide with the Almighty or merely bump up against him, we can never be the same. We never are when we experience God."

The more medical solutions I hear proposed, the more skeptical I become of science. No matter how research-based the answer, a spiritual matter remains. The two cannot be separated. In autism, a miracle diet for one child makes no difference in another.

In my mind, the quandry ends up where it all began: I am lying on a hospital bed awaiting a fertility treatment which seemed to me a shoo in. Can I be graphic? They prepared to put Jim's sperm into my cervix to get us pregnant, right? Wrong. As we held hands and said one last prayer in the romantic flourescent light of the Kaiser exam room, I queried the technician, "What is the effectiveness rate of this again?" His reply was significantly and shockingly less than 50%. Our adoption pursuit began shortly thereafter.

In that moment, Jim and I realized our hope belonged was in God not science. He alone ordains life, causes conception, and now holds the key to any healing that may benefit Reid or our family.

Today's verses remind me that our quest for healing, wholeness, and victory for our loved ones with autism will only come through faith in God and wisdom from on high.

April 7
Medical Answers

“My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.”
(Proverbs 2:1-8, NIV)

“Jesus answered, ‘Because your faith is too small. I tell you the truth, if your faith is as big as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. All things will be possible for you.’”
(Matthew 17:20, NCV)

Pray that the Lord would grant divine insight to researchers as they seek medical answers to the mysteries of autism.

Excerpted from Children of Destiny Turning the Tide! Prayer Thrust calendar here.