Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Broken arms don't lead to death's door.

     Throughout the Word of God, He shows Himself to be the God of healing.  If you look into it, you will find that in some scriptures, one of the actual words used for salvation and healing is interchangeable. The two works of God's grace are so uniquely intertwined.  In His Word you will come to find that Jesus not only paid for your salvation at the cross.  But, He took the beatings so that you could be healed. also.
     There is no more humbling experience than to see someone miraculously healed. When all of man's medical knowledge, and technical experience come to a frustrated hopeless impasse.  It seems that the gentle loving hand of God moves, and His children are healed. Yet, when there is a child involved, faith seems to become slippery, and hope nothing more than a broken net.  It is then that only the peace and presence of God that will get you through the Valley of the Shadow of death.
     Years ago, my son broke his arm.  In the big scheme of things, a lot of children break their arms. For a curious ,rambunctious two year old, it was not necessarily an unheard of event, even if it was one that was not hoped for to happen. It was a simple break.
     He fell down, and hit it just right.  In fact, it was one of those types of breaks where you're just not quite sure that your child did actually hurt himself.  For anyone who has been around little children, you know that their resiliency is amazing!  But, not long after a few tell tale signs, we scheduled an appointment with the doctor to have it checked out.  The physician confirmed our suspicion.  The boy's arm was then cast with the color wrapping of his choice.  Blue, if I remember correctly.  Then, in the appropriate number of weeks, it would be removed to reveal an arm as good as new.
     But, the recovery was not normal.  I don't remember what the actual signs were that caused us to question our son's health during this time.  But I do remember that it was not every long before we were bouncing back and forth between the pediatrician and the orthopedic surgeon's office. The doctor then scheduled surgery to get a better idea as to what the problem was, and why the child was having fevers, and redness on the arm.  What I do recall was the rapidity in which he went from a healthy young tot to a very sickly boy laying days in a hospital bed with his mom constantly by his side.
     Even though the break was not bad, and never punctured the skin, our child somewhere had developed a serious staph infection.  Our very experienced pediatrician had never seen anything like it.  She valiantly tried 3 different antibiotics as each failed to short circuit the spread of the staph in his bloodstream.  I remember how his skin on his hands and feet began to peel, and how he weakly started to curl in a fetal position.  It had come down to the nursing staff pushing the doctors to having him transferred to a major metro hospital 200 miles to the south of us for better care.  Our pediatrician who had to travel out of state for personal business would call in a  daily to monitor the situation, and had asked to be immediately paged should there be a turn either way.
     Our church at the time was in serious prayer mode for this little child as was everyone we knew.  His mom attending his every moment and calling out from the heart to the only one who could heal him from this ravaging attack.  It was in one those deep, despairing, trying moments; that she heard it.  A still small voice from the heart of her being.  As she interceded for her child, as only a mother can, she heard His voice calling back to her.  It simply said, "blow on his belly". 
    Now, for some people this may seem ludicrous and may turn them off.  May I suggest to you that you not let your pride and misunderstanding of God block you from ever receiving from Him when He speaks to you.  She was humble enough, desperate enough, trusting enough; to actually believe that she had heard the voice of the Lord.  She obeyed.
    Initially, nothing happened,  it was still in the hands of faith, hope, and love.  Yet, within 24 hours time, the boy's fever was gone, and the skin was returning to normal. He would be released a day later, with a clean bill of health.  The nurses all told us afterwards in confidence, that he was at death's door and that they did not believe he would be walking out of the hospital. They thanked God for a miracle that day in the childrens' ward.
     His mom's faith in a loving God who at times uses the strangest ways of enacting His will was solidified.  She knows that it was the humble,trusting heart of faith that obeyed His still small voice that brought a little boy home that day.
    

1 comment:

  1. wonderful story of God's grace, His requirement for humility, and of course His power.

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