Today, I'm going to share a story. This story was an assignment for a class I had last semester but it's not just any story. It's a story that i really experienced, the story of a moment when my eyes were really opened to the awesomeness of God. I thank Him for allowing me to experience this, even though it seemed awful at the time. I want to share this story as a way to show others that the miracles Jesus performed in the Old Testament aren't impossible this many years later.
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13:8
Miracles are Possible
Three quiet words, hardly understandable, spoken into my ear
through a phone on summer day.
“I miss you.”
Spoken by a boy, a boy who loves tractors, cars, trucks,
dirt, dogs, his family, his friends, church, and most of all - Jesus.
Spoken by a boy with the most adorable smile, a boy who said
things that made me laugh, a boy who frustrated me sometimes.
These words were spoken by a boy who I couldn’t imagine life
without.
And now, I knew I didn’t have to.
My hand grips the phone a little tighter. Tears seep out of
my eyes, squeezed shut, and spike my eyelashes. My eyes open and I look up,
sending a prayer to God.
A God who I now know is all-powerful; a God who I know can
perform miracles, even today, who I whole-heartedly believe in, who I don’t
always understand what he does, but I trust. Thanking a God who I was brought
closer to in 2 ½ weeks.
The emotions that I had been cycling through these last
couple of weeks have worn me down, both physically and mentally. These three words were like a drop of water
on a thirsty tongue; relief.
My six year old brother Tyler had fallen from a tree onto
pavement. His skull was cracked, his brain was swelling, and I didn’t think he
was even going to live. Through ways that I will never understand, the doctors
and nurses at Greenville Memorial Children’s Hospital Pediatric Intensive Care
Unit (PICU) were able to use their God-given knowledge and technology to
stabilize him enough so that we knew he was going to live.
Now, there was the question of brain damage. Would we ever
be able to watch Tyler run around the front yard, playing football with his
brothers? Would we be able to hear him read his Bible out loud again, sounding
out the words slowly? Would he ever even walk, or talk, or grow, or learn, or
live his life the way we had always pictured?
Going to the hospital the first time to see Tyler, I stepped
off of the elevator and saw my dad standing across the room. Without realizing
it, I ran across the room and fell into his arms. My heart broke as I felt my
father crying, our bodies shaking together, trying to both give and take
strength from each other.
The hallway to Tyler’s room seemed miles long, and I don’t
think anything could have prepared me for what I was about to see. Seeing my
little brother lying more still than I had ever seen him, attached to so many
tubes and wires and machines, a bolt screwed into his skull to measure swelling
of his brain, a little stuffed dog laying on a small space of his stomach that
wasn’t occupied by wires, made me choke up.
I wanted to tell him so many things. I wanted to let him
know how much he meant to me, how I missed him so much, and that he needed to
hang in there because he had so much to look forward to into his life. The only
thing I could do was stroke his hand and whisper “I love you, buddy,” my voice
cracking and tears flooding my eyes.
The emotions and feelings that I felt those weeks are
something I can’t even explain. I
learned so much from this experience, things that I could never have learned
without it. I think I grew up a lot too, having to take the role of mom and dad
to seven of my other siblings while my parents stayed in the hospital with
Tyler.
The most valuable thing I learned was that miracles are
possible. Not only has Tyler survived his accident, he came out with no brain
damage whatsoever, something that most of us didn’t even think possible.
Hearing him speak to me for the first time in two weeks, I
realized that Matthew 19:26 holds so much truth.
With God, all things are possible.
Have an amazing and blessed weekend.
-Shian
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