The Heavenly Surgeon
This morning a dear friend and colleague is undergoing surgery.  Over the summer she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and for the last four months she has been receiving chemotherapy treatments.  The cancer was advanced enough to require a mastectomy.  This procedure, as extensive as it is, will still have to be followed by radiation treatments.
How glad I am that my friend and colleague is also my sister in Christ Рa woman who loves the Lord and is loved by the Lord.  Her husband, too, is a marvelous Christian man who also serves as an elder in our church.  It was my joy to visit this fine couple last evening for just a bit.  After showing me some of their home improvement projects (I was impressed with their handiwork!), we sat down and talked just a bit.  Then we read Psalm 103, a precious chapter that ought to comfort and encourage the heart of any saint.  After reading this Scripture. we knelt in prayer together, calling on our heavenly Father and Great Physician to care for His child as only He can.
Later that evening, while doing a little bit of reading in bed before turning out the lights, I came across this quote from Charles Spurgeon:
The knife of the heavenly Surgeon never cuts deeper than is absolutely necessary. ¬†A father smites no harder than duty constrains. ¬†”He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” ¬†A mother’s heart cries, “Spare my child!”; but no mother is more compassionate than our gracious God. ¬†When we consider how hard-mouthed we are, it is a wonder that we are not driven with a sharper bit. ¬†So much rust requires much of the file; but love is gentle of hand. ¬† The thought is full of consolation, that He who has fixed the bounds of our habitation, has also fixed the bounds of our tribulation.
What’s Spurgeon saying? ¬†That God disciplines His children with absolute precision, based upon His perfect knowledge of them and His perfect love for them. ¬†
My guess is that if the doctor could have spared my friend from a full mastectomy, he would have. ¬†But radical surgery was required to root out a deadly cancer. ¬†If that is true in the physical realm, how much more essential is that in the spiritual realm? ¬†”For the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). ¬†This morning my friend is subjecting herself to the surgeon’s knife, because she believes that he/she knows what’s best for her and is qualified to perform this deep and delicate procedure. ¬†How much more so is this true of the Great Physician, the Grand Surgeon, of our souls? ¬†May we, in faith, submit ourselves to the scalpel of divine discipline, so that “after [we] have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called [us] to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish [us]” (1 Peter 5:10).
It will be worth it all when we see Jesus;
Life’s trials will seem so small, when we see Christ!
One glimpse of His dear face all sorrows will erase,
So bravely run the race till we see Christ!
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