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Hope's life captivated so many. Children, especially, prayed for Hope. But, like us, they didn't really know how to pray for her.One day, after Hope's diagnosis had been public for a week or so, our 9-year-old son Matt hopped in the car after school and immediately asked me, "Mom, is there any chance that Hope might live?"I knew why he was asking. The class prays at the end of each day, and I'm sure that many of the children were asking God to heal Hope. It left Matt confused. Should he be expecting God to do that or not? I told him God can do anything, but he might choose to heal her by making her perfect in heaven. And whether she was here with us or in heaven with him, she was in God's hands.I was taken aback a few times by those who insisted on praying for Hope's healing. I appreciated their sincere compassion and belief that God can heal, but I saw it as a misunderstanding of her true condition. Her syndrome was so rare, I felt they didn't understand how pervasive it was. I wanted to say, "Would you pray for God to 'heal' a child with Down syndrome?" I expect that most people, no matter how much they believe in God's healing power, would not pray that. That's because they understand that Down syndrome is written into every cell of a person's body. It is the same with Zellweger. This was not a disease that invaded Hope's otherwise healthy body. Every cell of Hope's body was marked by Zellweger, which began its destructive work even while she was being "knit together in her mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13).I began to see some people's insistence on her healing as, perhaps, a lack of faith. Or maybe it was shortsightedness. If she had been healed of Zellweger syndrome, she would still die someday. Instead, God chose to give her a new body, and he spared her from further pain—not just the physical pain of her condition but also the pain that is a part of every person's existence in our fallen world. From God's perspective, it was not a tragedy for her to die. It feels like a tragedy to me, but I find God's perspective reflected in Isaiah 57:1–2:"The righteous pass away; the godly often die before their time. And no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For the godly who die will rest in peace."Last week there was a prayer service for Taylor, a boy in our church who is fighting cancer. How I would love to see God work a miracle and rid his body of the cancer that is slowly robbing him of life! I love his parents, and because I know firsthand how awful and painful it is to watch your child die, I don't want them to have to endure it. But I also know God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55:8).Surely we can ask God for what we want. We can freely tell him that what we want is for those we love to be healed. We know he's our Heavenly Father and desires to give us good gifts. The problem is, I don't always know what to ask for. I want to give my son good things. But that is not always what he asks for. He wants Cocoa Pebbles and I give him shredded wheat. I know better than he what he needs. I have his best interest in mind, so I don't always give him what he asks for. Sometimes God's "good gifts" don't appear that way to me. He gives me broccoli when I want ice cream. Sometimes he allows suffering when we want healing.

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July 10 2000, Vol. 44, No. 8