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Hope for the Disabled
When All Disabilities Will Disappear
A QUADRIPLEGIC once said that most people have only "temporarily abled
bodies." How true that is, for sooner or later, physical flaws surface in
all of us! Thus, there is a booming market for eyeglasses, contact lenses, dentures,
hearing aids, electronic pacemakers, and knee implants. As Romans
8:22 says, "all creation keeps on groaning together and being in pain
together until now."
All of us can, therefore, be comforted by God's promise to restore obedient
humans to perfect physical health in a righteous "new earth." (2 Peter
3:13; Revelation
21:3, 4) Says Isaiah
35:5, 6: "At that time the eyes of the blind ones will be opened,
and the very ears of the deaf ones will be unstopped. . . . The lame one will climb up just as a stag does, and the tongue of the speechless one will cry out in gladness."
The Bible foretells that "a great crowd" will survive the destruction
of this present wicked system. (Revelation
7:9, 14; Psalm
37:10, 11, 29)
No doubt soon after that destruction, those with serious disabilities and health
problems will experience the instantaneous repair of their infirmities!
(Isaiah 33:24) As
a preview of the healing that will take place in God's new earth, Jesus performed
similar cures while he was on earth. (Compare Mark
5:25-29; 7:33-35.)
One cannot even begin to describe the euphoria that people will feel and the tears
of joy that will be shed as amputees discard their prostheses, crutches, and wheelchairs!
Sound in body, they will then be able to shoulder their God-given assignment of
assisting in transforming the earth into a paradise home.—Luke
23:43.
In the meantime, disabled ones today still have a struggle on their hands.
Nelson, a disabled person in Canada, says: "When I start feeling sorry for
myself, I think of Jesus' words at Matthew
24:13: 'He that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved.'"
In spite of their limitations, disabled ones can be complete and sound in the
most important way—spiritually—by enduring in the Christian faith.—James
1:3, 4.
Jehovah's Witnesses have helped millions to embrace this faith. Dell, a disabled man quoted in the preceding article, says: "I cannot begin to express how I felt when I learned that physical problems like mine are really only temporary." Yes, empowered by such a hope, Dell—and many others like him—can hardly be called handicapped. |
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