What in this realm can satisfy our universal thirst for health and wholeness? We simply cannot find it. Not amid volcanoes and cancers, blizzards and bereavements, cold-blooded cruelty and violent indifference. Here, we find rejection that leads to addiction, and shame that leads to suicide. Here, we find a hundred million hungry orphans who have never tasted trust. Our world is a war zone of wills, a whirlwind of sickness, a collision of selfish lusts. We find many things here, but perfect wholeness is not among them.
And yet the longing persists, no matter how hard we try to smother it. I felt it again that night at the mere mention of breakthrough, and it brought me to my knees. You’ve felt it, too. The longing throbs when you leave a doctor’s office or hear the jeers of other children. You’ve even felt it in the desire for an out, to not have to carry this burden.
“It’s not supposed to be this way,” it says. “It was never supposed to be this way. Sickness is a trespasser. Sin and death are shadowy brigands we were never supposed to meet. The harsh symptoms of down syndrome or severe autism were never invited here.”
