Am I My Sister’s Keeper?
Dec 10th, 2009 by admin
Dear friends,
And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? Genesis 4:9.
Last week Clare answered the question, “Am I my sister’s keeper?” with a resounding, “Yes.” Today we will consider some of the implications of her willingness to help her sister.
You may recall that her sister is in the advanced stages of alcoholism. She has liver damage and many other problems associated with the disease. We will consider two aspects of the question, how can she best serve her sister?
First, why did her sister get into this life threatening situation? Last week we looked at a question asked by another member of the healing list, “Am I a horrible person?” Unfortunately Clare’s sister asked this same question and answered, “Yes! I am such a bad person that I deserve to die.” Then she did not check out her unfounded belief, she just set out to punish herself by using a socially acceptable way of putting herself to death. Hannah gave a similar answer. She is overweight and puts herself through all manner of torture to punish herself.
Unfortunately all of us have given the same answer to the same question. We have chosen to be born into a body that we believe will die. Our job is to awaken in ourselves and others the conviction that we are not bad and we cannot die.
Second aspect of how can she best serve her sister? How can she be her sister’s keeper? There are two types of ways she can do this. One way would be to literally keep her confined so that she would have no possibility of hurting herself. Of course we do not want to and should not take away the free will of another person. However, if a child picks up a sharp knife we want to take it away so the child cannot hurt herself. Clare’s sister is literally a child at this point and needs to be protected from her weapon of choice long enough for her to make another choice.
So how can Clare keep her sister and serve her by being truly helpful? That is what healing prayer is all about. All of us on the healing prayer list have the opportunity to extend to those on the list an invitation to join us in the Christ mind and to be held in His Love so that they know they are “God’s beloved child with whom He is well pleased.” Clare has the additional opportunity to visit her sister directly and recognize “the divine essence hidden within” that invites her to accept eternal life for herself.
“Let this mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus” is a guiding passage as we join in healing prayer. Let us recognize the inestimable worth that God gives to all of us as we share the important healing work of Christ. 
Peace,
John