Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

I found this website (click for link) as I was searching for some information for a friend who is an amputee. It's written in book form with extensive analysis of reasons and logical explanations supporting the "fact" that God is imaginary. One argument made is that there never were any healings by Christ of amputees and never have been any healing of amputees.

The author posits that we would be better off in a more rational world.

My immediate response to this, being a person with a disability, was to feel used. This increased as I read on that the author used my condition, spinal cord injury, as yet another example of someone whom God would never heal.

That is simply not true.

I have been healed. I do not walk. My hands, wrists and legs remain paralyzed. But, make no mistake about it, I have been healed.

And that healing has come from God.

If these words make no sense to those of a secular bent, that is fine by me. I am willing to be called a fool in God's name. But read on, because I can explain what I mean in much less space than a book.

It is quite simple: I asked for healing from God. I prayed at Mass every week for healing with a great sense of assurance that God could, if He would, heal me. I remained open minded about how that healing would occur.

And I have been healed.

I am content in my circumstances most of the time. . I, like any other human being, am in a process of finding my way to a full life. Being human, I have bad days, but those are not necessarily related to being a quadriplegic.

If any of you out there don't have bad days, please email me. That surely is another miracle that is on the list of ones God has not performed yet!

My point is that healing does not necessarily mean that a limb will be regenerated. It is a narrow and ableist point of view to take that people with disabilities can only be healed if their disability is removed. How arrogant to assume that we are all miserable because we are disabled. Many people with disabilities, including myself, take offense at that assumption.

What I do know, because I live with a disability, is that the healing I required to move on with my life was spiritual. I took on the assumptions of society that I could not live a full and productive life. I let myself be "psyched out" and became negative and angry. I dug myself into a deep hole of self pity and self loathing.

It was from that pit that I needed rescuing. God did that. That was my healing.

How?

I was led to meet other people with the same disability who modeled a way to lead a productive and full life. I was provided with all the resources I need to make that life happen. I was given the opportunities to do so and the willingness to do the work involved. I have received all I need.

I do not need to have my spinal cord fixed in order to live in a way that fulfills God's will. If I was to claim that, I would be no better than a malingerer.

We can sit around and wait to see if amputees will regrow limbs or we can take the approach of seeing ourselves as spiritual beings. If we choose the latter, we can be victors, not victims.