Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. --John 14:12-14
Sometimes I think we forget whose we are, and with whose power we have been imbued. This is a story I heard just a few days ago from a friend, and my heart compels me to share it with you. I pray you will also boast in the power and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
A young man, I will call him Simon, was admitted to the hospital following a suicide attempt. In desperation, this broken soul had tried to hang himself. When he arrived at the hospital, it was believed his brain had been without oxygen for at least ten minutes.
Ten minutes without the breath of life. After only three or four minutes, things begin to look very, very grim.
Simon's parents, understandably, began the practical task of planning Simon's funeral.
But they never stopped praying, and the prayers of many others were united with their own, prayers for healing in whatever form God's will might presume. It takes a strong faith, not only to pray for healing, but to believe the form it might take.
Imagine this.
Imagine the doctors walking in to Simon's room carrying the results of a myriad of tests, MRIs, CT scans and whatever else they might think up, trying to figure out what happened here.
Doctors who have spent their adult lives in the diagnosis and treatment of all things cerebral, who have developed many caring ways to share bad news with the family when they have to.
Imagine these doctors, scratching their heads, puzzled looks on their faces.
Because today, they come bearing the best news a parent could ever hope to receive.
Simon's brain, deprived of life-sustaining oxygen for at least ten minutes, in all the tests and scans this hospital has to offer, showed no evidence of any such deprivation. Simon's brain was unscathed, unharmed by his actions.
I believe there is only one explanation.
The only possible way I believe such perfect healing could have occurred was by the perfect touch of the One True God whom we profess to serve, the One who answered the prayers of the faithful before a single syllable was uttered.
The One to whom all praise and glory is due.
Most awesome and amazing God, we thank you for hearing us, even when our prayers seem tired or empty. Help us to truly know and believe that you do hear every word before we speak it, and that you answer our every prayer, in your perfect time and in your perfect way. Amen.
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