The "What Next" Miracle

Where’s the Real Miracle?

Reynolds Price was a Duke Professor of English, prolific author, who experienced a dramatic healing from cancer.  He describes the story in his book, A Whole New Life, an insightful book about the journey of a cancer patient.  In 1984, a surgeon removed part of an 18 inch, “snake like” spinal tumor.  

In the book, he describes this dream, cited from a book review:   

He had a vivid dream of an encounter with Jesus at the Sea of Galilee, a place he had recently visited and photographed. In the dream, he follows Jesus into the lake. Jesus pours water over his back and "puckered scar," telling him that his sins are forgiven. As Jesus turns to go, Price boldly asks, "Am I also cured?" Jesus answers, "That too."

Following the dream, the surgeon could only find remnants of the tumor—like a dried up vine in his spine.  The question, “did Jesus appear and heal him,” is secondary to the objective fact—the tumor was gone.  He was still wheel chair bound for the rest of his life. What I do read in the Bible that rings true for me is this. Jesus was always giving people their lives back to them in a new form– and then challenging them to live a new life.  Price never did go back to the way his life was before the cancer.  He stepped ahead.  He cranked out more than a book a year. I heard him in an NPR interview.  “The whole point is never ‘why,’” he said.  “It is only ‘what next.’”  For believers, and in this case a very unorthodox one at that—Jesus gives the hope of the “what next.”