A woman prayed over me in Penn Station once.
She didn’t ask. That’s the part people don’t understand about this. She saw me, decided something, put her hand on my head, and started talking to God about my legs while I sat there in a wheelchair.
This happens to disabled people constantly. Strangers, church people, a guy at a grocery store, somebody’s grandmother. They mean it kindly. That’s not in dispute. I’ve had a version of the same conversation enough times that I eventually worked out what actually bothers me about it, which took years, because the first several hundred times I just said “thank you.”
Here’s the question I want to ask them:
If God doesn’t make mistakes, what exactly are you praying for?
That’s the one that gets said to disabled people in church basements and hospital rooms and comment sections. God doesn’t make mistakes. Everything happens for a reason. You were made this way on purpose.
I’ll take that more seriously than the people saying it do.
If I was made on purpose, then praying for me to be healed is asking God to undo His own work. You’re waiting for a train petitioning the Almighty for a revision. You’re telling Him He got it wrong, while quoting the doctrine that says He can’t.
You can believe I was made this way on purpose, or you can believe I need fixing. Pick one. Most people want both and want the disabled guy to nod along while they hold them at the same time.