Rudyard Kipling is probably best known for his Jungle Book story. Less well known is one of his ‘Just So Stories’, The Elephant's Child, that has at its end the poem:

I keep six honest serving-men:
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Where and When,
And How and Why and Who.
I send them over land and sea,
I send them east and west;
But after they have worked for me,
I give them all a rest.
I let them rest from nine till five,
For I am busy then,
As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea,
For they are hungry men:
But different folk have different views:
I know a person small;
She keeps ten million serving-men,
Who get no rest at all!
She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs,
From the second she opens her eyes;
One million Hows, two million Wheres,
And seven million Whys!

I keep a copy of this poem in my Bible for I look at it often as I read and study God’s word. I find these six honest men very helpful in Bible study when seeking understanding from what I am reading. I find that I am often asking the wrong question and, using the metaphor of the poem, am I seeking help from the wrong man, and just like the child of the second verse asking why, why, why…?

As a medical person I have seen a lot of sickness, disability and death. I have spent most of my life training and then working to fix broken bodies using many of the tools of the medical trade. Mankind has developed many of the medicines we use from fungi, plants and creatures in the world around us. We have invented many machines that assist in healthcare and devised vaccines that protect from many ravaging illnesses. We can do so much that our developed western world has come to expect good health, and when doctors fail they are subject to lawsuits. How different to my experience in Africa where I performed an operation on a child that failed and resulted in greater disability than before. I was thanked by the parents; ‘at least you tried to help’! It was unbelievably humbling. But why?

We read in Matthew 10:1 that Jesus gave his twelve disciples authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. Yet in Matthew 14:17-20 we read that Jesus’ disciples were not able to heal the epileptic boy. Why?

Was Jesus’ authority not sufficient? Clearly this is not the case since we are told repeatedly that Jesus healed everyone who came to him, including this epileptic boy. When the disciples ask ‘Why?’ Jesus replies ‘Because of your little faith.’ I have read many interpretations of this passage, all seeking to reconcile Jesus’ words with the realities of what we experience in this life. I think it is no accident that this encounter follows immediately after the account of the transfiguration. The glories and majesty of Jesus are revealed just a little, only to be followed by the lack of these manifested in the disciples’ failure. How humbling! Why?

I think I now understand a little better. Our vision is too narrow and our perspective is too short. Like my name-sake who took his eyes off Jesus to look at the wind (Matthew 14:29-30) we shift our gaze from the wonders, glory and majesty of the God of all eternity to our here and now and forget that before God we are like flowers of the field that wither and fall (1 Peter 1:24). We forget the truth that sickness and disability can bring us to Jesus (Mark 2:17) and can keep us close to him. Yes, Jesus healed the bodily sicknesses of all who came to Him but not all were born again. All still died, but not all to new life. In the context of eternity, healing the sick is only a little thing. Consider the implications of Mark 6:5 where Jesus could do no mighty work except heal a few sick!

All this might seem very negative and that is not my intention. Rather, I seek to encourage us all to see medical work in what I consider to be its true Biblical context. When Jesus came to the sick He came to the true sickness of mankind; his alienation from his creator, not bodily sickness. Bodily sickness is merely a consequence of that alienation. So let us heal all the bodily sicknesses we can but never fail to declare the glorious salvation in Jesus from all sickness and death, that as many as possible may come into the kingdom of God. And sometimes this body has to die that more might come into the kingdom of God, such as those described in this magazine. So the answer to my ‘Why?’ is, I believe, that ‘no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Corinthians 2:9) and it is not because of anything in ourselves but entirely a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8).