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Multiple Sclerosis and My Testimony of Jesus Christ
The author lives in Washington, USA.
I hoped for a miracle from the Savior. I discovered I’d already received two.
I’ve been an avid golfer for many years. Several years ago, walking the golf course became challenging. I continued playing golf, but I was forced to switch to riding a golf cart. As my challenges worsened, I decided it was time to visit the doctor. After a number of medical tests in 2017, I was ultimately diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord.
Since that diagnosis, I have spent considerable time contemplating the miracles of the Savior, specifically His healing miracles. I have often thought, I need one of His miracles. I have faith, so why can’t I have a miracle to be healed of my disease?
Finding Spiritual Healing
By studying the Savior’s healing miracles, I have come to a greater understanding of and appreciation for one of them in particular.
Upon learning of Jesus’s return to Capernaum, a large crowd gathered, perhaps because they had heard of His previous healings. Four people carried a man sick with palsy on a stretcher-like bed to see the Savior. The crowd was so large that they could not get through the door and into the room to see Him. So what did they do? They got on the roof, opened up a hole, and let down the man by rope. (See Mark 2:1–4.) What great friends this man had.
Jesus saw their faith and said, “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5).
Upon hearing this, the scribes accused the Savior of blasphemy, saying, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” (Mark 2:7).
Christ responded, “Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?” (Mark 2:9). But so they might know that He also had the power to forgive sins as the Son of God and Savior of the world, He then healed the man of his palsy (see Mark 2:10–11).
I have thought about this experience a lot. Here this man is brought to the Savior to presumably be healed of his physical disease, and what does the Savior do first? He declares the man forgiven of his sins. He heals him spiritually. While we do not know what sins this man needed forgiveness from nor how much this man had been laboring over his sins versus his disease, I find it telling that the first healing the Savior performs on this man is to heal him spiritually.
As I have pondered this, I have received the following impression: I have already received one of Jesus Christ’s miracles—the healing miracle made possible by His Atonement. We all have a spiritual disease. We are all in need of spiritual healing. The Savior has performed the miracle of His Atonement for all of us so that we can repent and return to Heavenly Father’s presence. We just need to have the faith to receive the blessings He has already made available to us. This spiritual miracle is more important than any physical healing miracle ever could be.
Feeling Hope in the Resurrection
I still want to be healed physically as well.
And I have come to realize that Heavenly Father and the Savior have taken care of that too. Because of the death and Resurrection of Christ, I know that I too will be resurrected and receive an eternal, perfected body. I will be healed of any disease that is currently afflicting me. While that miracle is set to happen at some point in the future and is something to look forward to, in my opinion it is no less a miracle than an instantaneous physical healing.
In this mortal existence, we get to walk by faith, not knowing what lies ahead. How grateful I am for my faith and knowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Savior of the world. He has given us such great gifts. I feel His love frequently. I pray that you too will feel of His love.
May our faith in and knowledge of Him always remain strong.