I really should be doing household chores now instead of typing on this computer, and I will do the chores in a few minutes. First, though, I have to stop for just a while, and appreciate a miracle, to tell what I have seen. They say "seeing is believing," but I am having a hard time believing what I have seen in the past few days.
You see, on Monday night one of my loved ones suffered a massive, severe, and deadly stroke. In just a matter of minutes she went from talking and enjoying the sunset to not knowing her name and not even recognizing her own daughter. And then...she collapsed on the hospital bed, not talking, not seeing, not even breathing on her own. She was placed on a ventilator and we were told to "call in the family." The machine was to keep her alive until everyone assembled and said their farewells to her. The brain damage was so severe that life functions could not even be guaranteed.
A short...yet it seemed forever...twelve hours later, after all the goodbyes were said, after so many tears of love and sorrow were shed, this lady was taken off the ventilator. We all sat there in the room with her, sometimes in silence, sometimes with words of comfort for one another, sometimes talking of memories of the life spent with her...and we waited. The end was near, only hours or minutes away. She was breathing on her own, but this would not last, the doctors told us. As the hours slowly crawled by, many of her friends came to see her one last time, hugged her, touched her, and told her they loved her. Pastors and preachers came. And time wore on...
Sometime around five o'clock that evening my lovely bride had gently washed her mother's face then turned away from the bed. As I looked toward her, I saw her eyes suddenly open. I said, "Look!" My bride turned to her mother. She was looking my wife in the eyes, both of her eyes wide open and alert. My wife said, "I love you." My mother-in-law told her, in clear and easily understood words, "I love you, too!" Since then, she has improved in many ways, and continues to do so to this very hour.
All of us who spent time with her since she was so badly stricken were told by the doctors that her time was short, that she would not last through the first night. Some of us saw the computer data that showed the damage. Never mind the doctors' opinions, diagnoses, and prognostications...all the hard data showed that this lady should not be alive. If she lived, she should have no abilities, no speech, no memory, no movement at all. By all logic and evidence she should be either dead or permanently in vegative state. She was still alive, and now had gained much of her memories and physical abilities. A miracle. I will say it again...A MIRACLE!
I have to say that in the past couple of years I have not really appreciated miracles...I did not look for them at all. Yes, I heard many people talk about "miraculous" events in their lives, but I was not impressed. Coincidences, I thought. Other times I listened to people talk about their "miracles" and put it up to that "fifty-fifty" chance. You know, something either happened or it did not. It was just a simple game of chance, nothing else.
But then she woke up. She talked. She knew her name, and recognized her children. And she survived ...no just survived, but she lived. She got one more chance to tell her children she loved them. She got one more chance to see her friends and they to see her. And...so sweetly ironic to me...she looked him in the eyes. She talked to the very preacher that we had called a day earlier because she had wanted him to speak at her funeral. He was visiting her in the hospital, and she was talking to him...lucidly and with strength. And I knew...I had seen a miracle! I had witnessed this lady come back from the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It can't be explained by the doctors. It is not possible according to the images of her injuries. She should not be alive...but she lives.
No, the doctors and the data cannot explain how this lady is alive...but I think something can. I am surprised after the past couple of years that I would be saying this tonight. There is only one explanation...are you ready? Prayer. Yeah, that's it. Preachers, pastors, priests, ministers, and "civilians." They all prayed prayers of power...of power I had never really heard before. And this wonderful lady, this mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother came back in power...not a vegetable, but a cognitive, conscious person...herself.
Prayers of power.
The doctors still tell us this miracle may be only temporary, and maybe that is true. But the miracle is not her ultimate survival, but her return to the living, her return - no matter how brief- to her friends and relatives. It was a glad reunion. It made me wonder if I had seen a glimpse of what it will be like someday in Heaven, someday when I, or you, are there for that glad reunion. Yes, this dear lady will someday walk the last mile with the Good Shepherd. But for now, each day, each hour we have with her is a gift from God.
This woman said just yesterday that she was still here because God had something more for her to do. I believe that is true, but I think God has more than one thing for her to do. I think this because she has already done at least two things: she brought joy to her family and friends by coming back to be with them again one more time; and, she showed me something I had forgotten over the past few years. She showed me that miracles DO happen, and that prayers said in Strength and in faith are more powerful than any doctor's medicine or medical opinion.
I can't explain what happened or how...and I am not going to try. It is time to finish my chores and hit the sack. And tomorrow I will visit once again this wonderful lady, and look into the face of a miracle.
You see, on Monday night one of my loved ones suffered a massive, severe, and deadly stroke. In just a matter of minutes she went from talking and enjoying the sunset to not knowing her name and not even recognizing her own daughter. And then...she collapsed on the hospital bed, not talking, not seeing, not even breathing on her own. She was placed on a ventilator and we were told to "call in the family." The machine was to keep her alive until everyone assembled and said their farewells to her. The brain damage was so severe that life functions could not even be guaranteed.
A short...yet it seemed forever...twelve hours later, after all the goodbyes were said, after so many tears of love and sorrow were shed, this lady was taken off the ventilator. We all sat there in the room with her, sometimes in silence, sometimes with words of comfort for one another, sometimes talking of memories of the life spent with her...and we waited. The end was near, only hours or minutes away. She was breathing on her own, but this would not last, the doctors told us. As the hours slowly crawled by, many of her friends came to see her one last time, hugged her, touched her, and told her they loved her. Pastors and preachers came. And time wore on...
Sometime around five o'clock that evening my lovely bride had gently washed her mother's face then turned away from the bed. As I looked toward her, I saw her eyes suddenly open. I said, "Look!" My bride turned to her mother. She was looking my wife in the eyes, both of her eyes wide open and alert. My wife said, "I love you." My mother-in-law told her, in clear and easily understood words, "I love you, too!" Since then, she has improved in many ways, and continues to do so to this very hour.
All of us who spent time with her since she was so badly stricken were told by the doctors that her time was short, that she would not last through the first night. Some of us saw the computer data that showed the damage. Never mind the doctors' opinions, diagnoses, and prognostications...all the hard data showed that this lady should not be alive. If she lived, she should have no abilities, no speech, no memory, no movement at all. By all logic and evidence she should be either dead or permanently in vegative state. She was still alive, and now had gained much of her memories and physical abilities. A miracle. I will say it again...A MIRACLE!
I have to say that in the past couple of years I have not really appreciated miracles...I did not look for them at all. Yes, I heard many people talk about "miraculous" events in their lives, but I was not impressed. Coincidences, I thought. Other times I listened to people talk about their "miracles" and put it up to that "fifty-fifty" chance. You know, something either happened or it did not. It was just a simple game of chance, nothing else.
But then she woke up. She talked. She knew her name, and recognized her children. And she survived ...no just survived, but she lived. She got one more chance to tell her children she loved them. She got one more chance to see her friends and they to see her. And...so sweetly ironic to me...she looked him in the eyes. She talked to the very preacher that we had called a day earlier because she had wanted him to speak at her funeral. He was visiting her in the hospital, and she was talking to him...lucidly and with strength. And I knew...I had seen a miracle! I had witnessed this lady come back from the Valley of the Shadow of Death. It can't be explained by the doctors. It is not possible according to the images of her injuries. She should not be alive...but she lives.
No, the doctors and the data cannot explain how this lady is alive...but I think something can. I am surprised after the past couple of years that I would be saying this tonight. There is only one explanation...are you ready? Prayer. Yeah, that's it. Preachers, pastors, priests, ministers, and "civilians." They all prayed prayers of power...of power I had never really heard before. And this wonderful lady, this mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother came back in power...not a vegetable, but a cognitive, conscious person...herself.
Prayers of power.
The doctors still tell us this miracle may be only temporary, and maybe that is true. But the miracle is not her ultimate survival, but her return to the living, her return - no matter how brief- to her friends and relatives. It was a glad reunion. It made me wonder if I had seen a glimpse of what it will be like someday in Heaven, someday when I, or you, are there for that glad reunion. Yes, this dear lady will someday walk the last mile with the Good Shepherd. But for now, each day, each hour we have with her is a gift from God.
This woman said just yesterday that she was still here because God had something more for her to do. I believe that is true, but I think God has more than one thing for her to do. I think this because she has already done at least two things: she brought joy to her family and friends by coming back to be with them again one more time; and, she showed me something I had forgotten over the past few years. She showed me that miracles DO happen, and that prayers said in Strength and in faith are more powerful than any doctor's medicine or medical opinion.
I can't explain what happened or how...and I am not going to try. It is time to finish my chores and hit the sack. And tomorrow I will visit once again this wonderful lady, and look into the face of a miracle.
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