I have been a believer all of my life and I crossed the line of faith when I was 14. But it hasn't been until the last 7 or 8 years that I truly realized how BIG God is! If you have children then you know; how can anything so wonderous and amazing come from anything other than a perfect, loving, BIG God.
Over the last 2 weeks I have come face-to-face with a few of God's gracious miracles.
First, I was at a Navigator Retreat (for our small group leaders at church) when I heard the news that one of our pastor's sisters had suffered what appeared to be a massive brain aneurism(sp?). She has 2 very young girls and had just given birth to a son 10 days earlier. The doctors gave her husband (also a pastor) the decision to either do surgery (with not very good odds of survival & probable life-long brain damage) or let her pass away. Of course he had to let them operate & put all of his trust and faith in Christ. Blogs were set up, prayer chains were started, they even ran a story about her on the local news station. It has been about 11 days and Katie is not only alive, but beating all odds and logic at every turn (eating, drinking, talking, laughing, remembering, seeing, LIVING). If you want to read her complete story or add to the thousands who are praying for her go to katiebloomprogress.blogspot.com . The family's prayer is that this miracle, brought about through God not medicine, would not be overlooked. But that we would be, along with hundreds of others that hear this story, brought to our knees by how true and great God is!
Then...
On Saturday afternoon we received a call from Mario's sister that a long-time friend of theirs was in the hospital, hooked up to life support and had no brain activity. He had been at a friend's house drinking and partying the night before and when everyone began waking up, he did not. This isn't a story of someone who wanted to die. He is a father, a brother, a son, a friend. Who leaned a little too hard on the World and not hard enough on God during a sad time in his life. (Been there? I have). The hospital staff waited for his family to all get to the hospital and made the decision to try a few more procedures and run a few more tests (they at one point had him in a frozen state and then thawed him out...my ignorant interpretation, I'm sure it's much more involved). Last night, after he had thawed, he was able to open his eyes and he tried to raise his right arm. This is a man who was not breathing & no brain activity for at least 23 minutes! He's also flinching at stimulus (pinching). He is in NO WAY out of the woods. His kidneys are not functioning properly and they are still waiting on the neurologist's full report from the new tests. But I know that God has His hands all over this. It is my prayer that we continue to see God's awesomeness and divine healing in Christopher.
Through these tragedies I have drawn so close to God. Sometimes I forget that just because I can't see Him doesn't mean He isn't there...It just means that I'm not looking. I love the song "Bring the Rain" by MercyMe. It reminds me to be thankful for the trials and troubles because that's where we get the most growth. So bring it...
3 days ago
