The Question Was Asked:

Christians, why do you take medicine if god can just cure you if you pray? By Ronnie Bray Good question! Think about it this way: Brian Believer fell over a cliff and was heading onto the jagged rocks below when a third of the way down his jacket snags a shrub growing out from the rock face. Afraid for his life, and who wouldn't be, he pleaded to God to save him. He tried not to panic as he waited on God, his devotional verse for the day kept rolling over in his mind: "Be still and know that I am God." He recognises that being still might keep him safe, prevent his falling to certain death, and so he remains calm, tries not to wriggle or fidget, and continues praying with less histrionicality. "Please, God. Save me!" After a minute a couple of chaps in an eight-man rubber dinghy powered by an outboard motor pass almost directly under where he is, but they maintain a safe distance asea from the jagged rocks. Spotting the dangling man, they call to him through a loud hailer, "Jump far out away from the rocks and we'll fish you out of the sea and into our boat and take you to safety." "Oh, no, it's okay," Brian calls back to them. "God is going to save me." He waved them off, and they shrugged and continued their journey.

Again, he prayed. "Please God, I know you can hear me but I need you to answer my prayers and send assistance or I will perish!" A couple of minutes later a helicopter pilot spotted the man stuck by his jumper on the shrub and tells his mate, "Hey, George, I'm, going to hover over that spot, you go down on the winch line and bring him up to safety." Right-ho!" says George," and lowered himself by the electric winch attached to a breeches buoy with a rescue seat attached also. Drawing level with the man of faith, George said, "I'm going to swing the seat to you. When it is within reach, you grab the line with both hands, tear yourself free from the shrub, and get on to the seat and we'll winch you up into the helicopter and safety." Waving him away, the stuck one says, "Oh, you needn't bother. God is going to save me. You see, I am a believer and have prayed to God and he will save me!" George tried to persuade Brian Believer for several minutes, but finally discontinues, recognising that Brian's mind is well and truly made up and that he will not yield to his enticings to be saved. So, up goes George, and then away goes the helicopter. Brian Believer hangs on and prays again. After a few minutes, the shallow roots of the shrub pull away from the crumbling cliff face and Brian falls to a hideous death on the jagged rocks. Ugh! It is not a pretty sight. Minutes later [it's been a busy day for deaths], Brian is sat before God and wags his finger in God's benevolent face, shouting,

"You let me down! I was hung up on the cliff face hanging on for dear life by me jumper and I prayed mightily to you to save me and you let me fall to my death, and I still had half a cheese sandwich in my pocket that I hadn't eaten! What have you got to say for yourself, eh?" God sat back on his golden nacre inlaid throne and laughed. "What are you laughing for?" demanded Brian. "You didn't answer my prayers! What kind of a God are you? I've a good mind to become an atheist, so there!" God laughed again. In fact, he roared with laughter. "What are you laughing at," shouted Brian. "I fail to see anything funny about this." "Well", said the Almighty, "You have left it a bit late to become an Atheist now that you are sat there in front to me, dontcha think?" The Mighty Jehovah jerked his thumb to the side to indicate a group of about fifty men and women sat in a circle about God's other throne singing sacred psalms of worship to his majesty. "You see those people?" "I do," snapped Brian. I may be all wet but I'm not blind! Who are they?" "They are a bus load of Atheists that were on an "Ignore God" picnic in the high Andes when their driver pulled over to make room for a bus load of Holy Pilgrims to pass, kind soul, and drove three thousand feet down a ravine." "They can't be Atheists, said Brian. "They are all, singly and corporately, worshipping you, so how can they be Atheists?"

"Ah, yes, Brian, I should have said they 'were' Atheists. However, when Atheists come here they are immediately converted. This place, and me, we have that effect on people." "What's your point, grumbled Brian. Why are you bothering me with that Atheist stuff? Im a believer!" "Because," began El Shaddai slowly and deliberately, "You threatened to become an Atheist, and I'm showing you that there are no Atheists here because they immediately recognise their errors when they arrive." "Never mind them, now. What about me? "You are supposed to be a believer, but I answered your prayers and you didn't recognise my hand in the efforts that were made to save you." "Tommy rot!" cried an angry Brian Believer. "I hung up there for ages praying to you and you didn't come to help me!" "No," said The Holy One of Israel, "I didn't come in person, I was busy forgiving this coach load of 'former' Atheists, but I sent angels to help you, and YOU turned them away!" "No angels came," insisted Brian. All I saw were two men in a boat and another two men in a helicopter." "And did they try to save you?" 'Well, they offered to help," said Brian, but I told them you were going to save me." "Do you read your Bible?" asked God, sighing.

"Of course I do," sighed back Brian. "I read it day and night." "And do you believe what you read, Brian?" asked He That Dwelleth in the High and Holy Place. "That I do! That I do," said Brian as a soldier would answer a roll call, "That I do!" "Do you recall what it says in Hebrews 13, verse 2"? "Yes, of course I do," said Brian, not quite getting what the Lord of Lords was getting at. "What does it say?" asked The God If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "It says, 'Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.'" "Think about it," Said the God of Gods. "It doesn't make sense," retorted Brian. "I was on the cliff and prayed and you didn't save me, you didn't come! YOU DIDN'T COME!" "I know I didn't come. But I sent a boat and then a helicopter to save you and you turned away those angels!" Then, Brian understood at last. He had been slow to recognise that not all blessings from God are delivered by the hand of God in person. "Angels unawares, eh, God?" asked Brian, humbled, taught, and satisfied.

"Just so," said God, and embraced Brian. "Any more questions, Brian?" "Just one. I have a brother who is also a believer and he will not send for the doctor when he or his family are ill. Is he right to do that?" God smiled his loving smile and said softly, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." The light went on in Brian's brain. "Angels unawares?" "Just so," said God. Just so."