Aneurysmi

It's been over a month that my friend Jan suffered from a ruptured brain aneurysm and was hospitalized. The first few days, after I heard the news, were shocking and fearful because no one knew what to expect and because the odds of survival seemed grim.

Well, she did survive and continues to recover. She remains hospitalized, but for the last two weeks has been making new progress in her recovery every day. Every day there have been updates in a blog kept for her by her husband and by her brother, and every day there have been postings that tell of each step of her progress, and every day her blog receives comments from her friends near and afar, offering their encouragement and prayers. Her survival and recovery appear miraculous, and I have been feeling so grateful for the prayers that have been answered.

This week I received an email from my church mailing list. It was a prayer request for another family that just recently and suddenly lost a member to an aneurysm. This news has left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand I feel so grateful that Jan has survived and recovers, and that our many prayers have been heard. How lucky she is! On the other hand, I am shocked to hear of the loss to the other family caused by the same condition that almost took Jan.

It seems so arbitrary. Does God answer prayers on a democratic basis? Were there more of us praying for Jan, harder and louder, than for the other woman such that Jan survived and the other did not? Or is there some principle of conservation involved, such that when one person was saved, another had to be taken instead?

These are rhetorical questions; yet I invite thoughtful comments from anyone reading this.