Do you remember the days when you had to be a certain age in order to enter some parts of a hospital?  Do you remember when all nurses wore white uniforms and little starched caps?  How about this: Do you remember when you had to whisper and tiptoe inside the hospital?  If you remember these things, then I’d say you and I are about the same age.

Hospitals are becoming less antiseptic and frightening and are more informal and people friendly.  Nurses’ uniforms are casual pant sets in pastel colors.  Waiting rooms are stylishly decorated, and some food services rival fine restaurants.  Most hospitals have a marketing department, where staff meetings include topics such as products and services.  Employees are taught to think of the patients as guests.  As nice as that sounds, the fact remains that some patients are very ill guests.  But time marches on, and the world of medicine continues to evolve, usually for the better.  We’ve come a long way from the days when doctors made house calls, gave us an aspirin (the miracle drug of my day), and told us to call him in the morning!

We may say those were the good old days.  But the fact is, the good old days were not so good at all.  As late as the 19^th century, epidemics would infect thousands.  The relationship between germs and disease had not yet been proved.  Antibiotics were undiscovered.  X-rays, MRIs, and CAT scans were figments of science fiction imagination.  No, when I’m sick, I wouldn’t want to go back to the past.  I’ll keep the well-trained doctor I have and hope for even more medical advances in the future. 

In my spiritual life I have a specialist who I call my Primary Physician.  This doctor knows all about me.  He was present when I was born.  He was present when my mother was born.  In fact, this doctor spans the history of the world.  He is the creator of everyone and everything.  He’s your doctor, too.  You guessed it—He’s God, the Great Physician.

When this Great Physician created the first man and woman, He told them how they could stay healthy.  There is an old adage, “You are what you eat.”  Graciously, He showed our first parents all the things He had made that were good for them to eat (“Every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat”  Genesis 1:29).  He steered us away from fats and cholesterol before we even heard the words!

When Israel lived in the desert for 40 years, He provided them with special food from heaven—food that kept them in optimum health (Exodus 16:14).  And He gave them crystal, clean water from a rock to drink (Numbers 20:8).  This Great Physician cares about the healthy lifestyle of His people.

When He Himself came and lived in this world, He spent a great deal of His time taking care of the health needs of the people around Him.  He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, cured leprosy, stopped a hemorrhage, reattached a severed ear, relieved a fever, cast out evil spirits, restored a paralytic, and even raised the dead.  You can read all about it in the first four books of the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The Great Physician did all this, and more; and He didn’t consider people clients or guests.  He called them friends and beloved--His sons and daughters.  He comforted the grieving and fed the hungry.  He rebuked when necessary, but He often praised.  Sometimes He healed by saying just a word, and sometimes He touched the problem area with His hands.  He was always on call, always available, always kind, always cheerful, always honest, always helpful.

And now this Great Physician is in heaven preparing a place for you to come live with Him.  And He promises that in His city there will be no more sickness, no more pain, no more disease, no more disabilities.  Mankind is clever and has invented and discovered many ways to cure and repair these bodies of ours.  But the Great Physician has the ultimate cure.  When He comes to take us to heaven, He will give us a new body.  Now that’s cutting-edge medicine.  We’re told that this corruptible will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality (1 Corinthians 15:54).  And we’ll not be His clients or His guests—we’ll be family because we belong to Him.  That’s the healthcare plan I’m waiting for.  How about you?