The Hospital of Christ's Gospel

Stone House: Intersection of Sudley Road and Lee Highway. Manassas, VA. Can you see the traffic lights?

The Old Stone House stands on the intersection of Sudley Road and Lee Highway--two roads I've driven down hundreds of times. Well . . . both those roads were critical in the two Civil War battles here in Manasssas. I had no idea they were that old!

Me at Stone House. Too bad my raincoat is not cerca 1800s.

The Stone House was a Union hospital during both battles. It's a smaller building than I expected. I can imagine the wounded soldiers cramed together on the narrow floors of the non-wartime tavern. Without modern lights, it would have been dark, and there is little ventilation to air out the smell. The medics were just beginning to abandon old methods of bleeding and cutting and to learn the importance of sanitation. How frightening must this house have seemed to a single wounded private!

This made me think about our ultimate healer, Christ, who knows each of us perfectly. To Him, we are not a number; He knows our name. Christ knows when we fall victim to the enemy of our souls (aka Satan), and He knows when we suffer awful wounds (aka Sin). The world does not have the tools to heal us. Only Christ can do that.

When Christ appeared in the Americas, He proclaimed,

"O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?" (3 Nephi 9:13).

It is only by coming to Christ that we will be made whole. He will heal us of our wounds as we have faith in Him, repent, are baptized, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end (2 Nephi 31). I'm so grateful for the healing He has don in my life!