When Healing Comes Through Tears

In 2006, Laura Story's husband Martin underwent surgery for a brain tumor. The operation saved his life, but it left him with severe memory loss and ongoing health challenges. Laura had prayed for complete healing. Instead, she got something she never expected — a husband alive but forever changed, and a faith tested to its core.

Out of that crucible came the song Blessings, with its haunting question: "What if Your healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near?"

Laura didn't write a song about getting what she wanted from God. She wrote a song about discovering that healing doesn't always look like restoration to what was. Sometimes healing looks like learning to walk with a limp, like Jacob after wrestling the angel. Sometimes The Almighty heals not by removing the wound but by meeting us inside it.

The congregation at Perimeter Church in Georgia watched Laura and Martin live this out — not a tidy testimony with a neat ending, but a daily, unfinished story of grace sufficient for today.

Healing in Scripture is not always the miracle we request. Sometimes it is the presence we receive. The psalmist didn't say, "The Lord removed my valley of shadow." He said, "You are with me."

When you pray for healing and the answer comes sideways, remember: El Roi, the God Who Sees, may be doing a deeper work than you asked for.