Why God Doesn't Heal Amputees

My good friend Scott is one of the strongest people I know. Over the past 3 years his mother had been in the hospital over 100 times due to her leg problem. She has been battling an infection and what starts as an ordinary day can turn into a race against time when she develops a 102 degree temperature by night time. Finally, last year the doctors removed her leg. This was supposed to stop the infection and stop the hospital trips. Instead, she came down with a staph infection and continues to have the complications. Every so often Scott tells me that his mother is back in the hospital again. Through all the pain and suffering the family has kept their faith and remains optimistic for the future. Whenever I talk with her she is excited to tell me about the prosthetic leg she bought.

Why doesn't God just grow her leg back and show everyone a great miracle? This question kept going through my head for days. I thought of all the people who would be amazed and how glory would be given to God. The idea of an entire leg just reappearing seemed like an excellent miracle to show how powerful God was. So I began to look online in hopes to find stories of miraculous limb regeneration. Unfortunately, all I came across was Atheists disproving Christianity by this question. Atheists were saying that if God were truly all powerful, why wouldn't He grow some lost limbs? The question seemed very convincing to me. Why wouldn't God jump at the chance to show His great power? Unfortunately the Bible doesn't have a section in it for this question either. So I decided to analytically consider why this miracle wasn't happening.

The answer came to me in the strangest place imaginable, an IHOP. My friend and I went out for breakfast and my mind was all consumed with schoolwork and what was happening that day. Looking down, I noticed that I had almost completely finished my pancakes. I was not in the least bit full and began wishing that my pancakes would regenerate themselves. My friend as well had almost finished his pancakes. The imagery made me chuckle a little bit. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Let me use a little parallelism and compare the whole pancake to a leg. Let's say that my friend and I were both strong Christians. After eating my pancake, I decided that it wasn't quite filling enough. So being the strong Christian that I am, I sent up a prayer and asked God to bless me with another full pancake. Instantly with a puff of smoke the pancake was restored. That would most definitely be a miracle. All the employees and people around me would be dumbfounded. O it was nothing, I would say, I just prayed and God blessed me with a new pancake. The glory would go to God and everything would be great. However, my friend seeing this looks down at his plate and decides to do the same thing. He would begin praying for his pancake to be restored as well. Only this time nothing happens. Is my friend not as spiritual as I am? Is my friend not as good of a person? Is my friend praying wrong? All these questions would arise with no way of having them answered. The same is true for Scott's mom. If she had her leg miraculously healed, she would be getting phone calls asking her what she was prayed word for word. People wouldn't be seeking God for His saving grace. They would just want Him to heal physical problems whenever they arose.

God, in his infinite wisdom thinks like a chess player I think. He understands the consequences of what will happen down the line. While us as humans only see what we can get right now. We want what works best for us in our time. God has a plan and even though it seems like Scotts mom will never heal, God knows. I realized that I was putting limits on God. I don't know what God has in store for Scott's mother, but I do know that whatever it is, it will bring Him glory. Thank you