A Wedding in a Hospital

“The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up.” — from James 5

In New York there lived a clever writer named Joy Davidman. She grew up not believing in God. One night in 1946, when her husband was in trouble and could not come home, she was alone and frightened with her two little boys. For the first time in her life, she felt that God was there with her. She found herself on her knees, praying.

Joy read Jack’s books, and in 1950 she wrote him a letter. He wrote back. In 1952 she came to England, and they met for lunch in Oxford. Joy was funny and fearless, and she could argue with Jack and win! Warnie liked her too. Later she came to live in England with her sons, David and Douglas, and her first marriage ended.

In 1954 Jack became a professor at Cambridge University, but he came home to the Kilns at weekends.

In 1956 Joy was told she could not stay in England any longer. Jack did not want her and the boys to be sent away. So he married her in a short, simple ceremony at an office, so that she could stay. He thought of it as helping a friend.

But a few months later Joy’s leg bone broke, and the doctors found that she had cancer. They did not think she would live long. Then Jack realised something: he loved her! He wanted to be truly married to her, before God.

On 21 March 1957, a priest named Peter Bide, who had once been Jack’s student, married them in Joy’s hospital room. Then he laid his hands on her and prayed for her healing. To her doctors’ great surprise, Joy began to get better! Her bones began to heal, and by the end of the year she could walk with a stick.

Jack and Joy believed that God had heard their prayers. God does not always heal people in the way we ask. But he always hears us, and we can always bring the people we love to him.

Dear God, thank you that you hear our prayers. Please be with everyone who is ill, and help me to pray for them. Amen.