The Great Healer jt he doctors | know are smart, hard-working, and com- passionate. They have relieved my suffering on many occasions, and I am grateful for their expertise in diag- nosing illnesses, prescribing medication, setting broken bones, and stitching up wounds. But this does not mean that I place my faith in physicians rather than For reasons known only to God, He [ist appointed humans to be His partners in | am the LORD, the work of caring “for creation (GeN.2:15), who heals you. and doctors are among them. Doctors — gxodus 15.26 study medical science and learn how God designed the body. They use this knowledge to help restore us to a healthy condition. But the only reason doctors can do any- thing to make us better is that God created us with the ability to heal. Surgeons would be useless if incisions didn’t heal. Scientists can learn how God created our bodies to func- tion, and they devise therapies to help restore or cure us, but they are not healers; God is (ex. 15:26). Doctors simply cooperate with God’s original intent and design. So I am grateful for science and doctors, but my praise and thanksgiving go to God, who designed an orderly universe and who created us with minds that can discover how it works. I believe, therefore, that all healing is divine because no heal- ing takes place apart from God. @ JULIE ACKERMAN LINK Father God, You are the Great Physician, and | ask for healing, whether mind, body, spirit, or in all of these. | believe You will give what is best. Thank You for Your goodness, kindness, and love in all things. When you think of all that’s good, give thanks to God.The Tree of Love i he corkscrew willow tree stood vigil over our backyard for more than 20 years. It shaded all four of our children as they played in the yard, and it provided » shelter for the neighborhood squirrels. But when springtime came and the tree didn’t awaken from its winter slumber, it was time to bring it down. Every day for a week I worked on that tree—first to fell it and then to chop two decades of growth into manageable _ [Jesus] bore our pieces. It gave me a lot of time to think sins in His own about trees. body on the tree. I thought about the first tree—the 1 Peter224 one on which hung the forbidden fruit that Adam and Eve just couldn’t resist (GEN. 3:6). God used that tree to test their loyalty and trust. Then there’s the tree in Psalm 1 that reminds us of the fruitfulness of godly living. And in Proverbs 3:18, wisdom is personified as a tree of life. But it is a transplanted tree that is most important—the crude cross of Calvary that was hewn from a sturdy tree. There our Savior hung between heaven and earth to bear every sin of every generation on His shoulders. It stands above all trees as a symbol of love, sacrifice, and salvation. At Calvary, God’s only Son suffered a horrible death on a cross. That’s the tree of life for us. @ DAVE BRANON TODAY'S READING ene Ler ee) Father, on this day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we're grateful for the cross and for Your Son who gave His life so that we might have life Thank You. The cross of Christ reveals man’s sin at its worst and God's love at its best.