WAS IT A MIRACLE, A COINCIDENCE or just GOOD LUCK?
I am a Christian and I hold to more of a reformed view of scriptures, leaving plenty of room for the Sovereignty of God to be and to do beyond what my puny mind can imagine or think. Which brings me to a question about prayer and miracles.
I have read, studied and prayed at length about prayer. I believe every word the Bible presents about prayer and praying – and perhaps ‘a little bit more’, if that is permissible.
The reason I say ‘a little bit more’ is that I have a nagging feeling that I am missing something. A big something, at that. This feeling comes from that fact that I have seen and experienced some absolutely amazing results from prayer. I should call them miracles because these are things of which the occurrence should have been absolutely impossible, at least in this natural world. These are things that have neither a scientific, natural or coincidental explanation (i.e., luck). They have been 100% inexplicable.
I would like to give a few examples of the things that I have personally experienced over the years. And, even though they happened to me or near me, I still wonder. After these examples, I will pose my nagging question and I ask if you would help me, please?
#1. I FELL FROM A TREE.
I was about nine years old and like many nine year old boys, I liked climbing trees. I was living with my grandparents in a rural part of Oklahoma, near Oklahoma City. One particular day, I decided to climbed to the top of a very tall cottonwood tree.
The view from over fifty feet in the air was great. The breezes were causing the top of this tree to sway so it was better than a ride at the state fair. Then suddenly, the branches which were supporting me broke and I began to fall, snapping branch after branch until a thick, stronger branch caught me and flipped me over. Now I was falling head first toward the ground.
This happened so fast that my young mind was not able to process the idea that I was about to hit the ground on my head, from fifty feet in the air. Then, suddenly, I was jerked violently to a complete stop.
I was dazed and confused. Hanging upside down, I looked up to see that my foot was caught in a forked branch of the tree. And, not just any branch, but THE VERY LAST BRANCH of the tree. I slowly realized that I had, at least, been spared serious injury.
Now came the problem of how to get out of this predicament. I hung there for a while to ponder. I let my arms dangled below my head. My hands touched something, so I strained to bend my neck enough to look toward the ground. I was stunned.
Just within my reach was a fence post. The fence post was positioned directly in line with my fall. My head would have struck the top of the post had I not been caught by the branches.
Additionally, the fence post had a large steel spike in the top for draping chicken wire around a chicken enclosure. I now realized that had I continued to fall I would hit the post and driven that spike into my skull – an ugly but certain death.
The good news was that I was able to grasp the top of the post, push downward and free my foot from the forked branch and sort of vault down to the ground, with a thud.
I was shaken but not seriously injured. I just sat there, dazed and wondering.
I finally got myself together and went home. I never told my grandparents what had happened. I figured it was just another day in the life of a nine year old boy.
“Lucky me”, huh?
I had heard stories in Sunday school and church how God worked miracles and I wondered if that is what had happened for me?
#2. HE EVEN CONTROLS THE ELEMENTS
Our family was travelling from a vacation in Orlando, Florida. My sons were about five and eight years old. We stopped at a ‘pull off area’, sort-of-a rest stop, on highway A-1-A somewhere near Saint Augustine, Florida.
The weather was cloudy and blustery. The waves were splashing onto the sidewalk along the shore line, which was lined with large stones to stop erosion, I guessed.
My youngest son, I and walked to the end of a sidewalk cul-de-sac to look at the splashing water. I felt safe enough, then suddenly a huge wave crashed over the rock abutment and onto the two of us. When the water receded, my son was gone! The wave had sucked him into the turbulent water and I could see no trace of him. Prayers began to race in my mind and out of my mouth.
Psalm 116:8-9
For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.
Panic seized me and my first thought was, “GO GET HIM!”. So, I kicked off my tennis shoes and turned to dive into the water, which was probably a very bad idea, when another huge wave crashed onshore and as suddenly there was my son Jody, standing upright on the sidewalk, soaking wet, sputtering water and crying! I grabbed him and ran back toward the car, thinking, “WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Nobody is going to believe this.”
#3.
GOD IS OMNIPRESENT
I had started a mailing business that depended on a mail program to work properly each week. Even a one day delay of getting the mail prepared and sent would be financially disastrous for my business and for our family’s financial needs.
One particular week, this computer program stopped working. The data input from, what was then called ‘floppy disks’, would not work. I feverously tried again and again. I even reformatted the entire hard drive, reinstalled the operating system on the computer, reinstalled the mailing programs and when I tried to download the homeowner’s data FROM THE 26 FLOPPY DISKS, the program would fail at disk number 18, and disks 18 through 26 were the critical disks. I prayed continuously. I prayed fervently. I prayed desperately.
I worked on this for TWELVE hours (through the entire night and into the next morning), reformatting the hard drive and repeating the process, knowing that if this failed, we would become bankrupt and could not even buy groceries the next month.
I stopped in exhaustion, cried out to God, “I give up. I quit! I have prayed and prayed to you! Now, I give up.”
I started putting things away in resignation. I was defeated. My mind darted back and forth between what to do next and resentment. It was then I decided to do this ONE MORE TIME.
I restarted the computer and put disk number one into the computer. The computer whirred and gave me a screen message that confused me, “INSERT DISK #18”. I was completely confounded. It made absolutely no sense that the computer would skip disks 1 through 17 and ask for disk 18.
I followed the instruction and inserted disk #18. The program accepted disk #18 and another message came on the screen asking for disk #19. This continued until disk #26, the final disk, and after installing the data from disk #26, the machine turned itself off! It did it own its own!
My heart was beating what seemed like a hundred beats a minute. I restarted the computer and told it to start printing the mailing list, AND IT WORKED!
God had answered in a humanly impossible situation, in a physically impossible way. As far as I could tell, every logical law of math and programming had been violated and transcended. Yet, here we were. Saved again. Safe and sound. BUT IT WAS NOT EASY.
#4.
THEY FOUND HER!
Dale, a lady from our church in Virginia, came to me after services. She looked frantic. “Would you pray for my daughter?”, she asked.
“Sure”, I replied, “what do you want to pray about?” I was both uncertain and surprised. I wasn’t sure what the daughter or the Mom needed and I was surprised because Dale did not like me all that much.
We were members of a small Baptist Church and this church avoided “expressive worship” and were mostly quiet about miracles. I, on the other hand, was “slightly expressive” and was familiar with miracles.
Dale explained to me that her daughter had stolen their car and had run away and had not been heard from for several days. Dale and her husband had alerted the local police but there had been no word on her.
“Dale”, I began, “I know you don’t like me that much, so I have to ask why you are asking me to pray with you?”
“It’s not that I don’t like you, Mike”, Dale said, “It’s just that you are so, I don’t know, OUT THERE. But, I also know that God answers your prayers. So, please, pray for us.”
“OK, Dale, let’s pray right now.”
“Here”, Dale asked, looking surprised. “Right here in the church parking lot?”
“Why not?”, I responded. “You need help and I say let’s get to it”.
I grabbed Dale’s hands in my hands and began to pray and AS WE WERE PRAYING her cell phone rang. I opened my eyes and saw Dale peeking at the cell phone.
“Hold on a minute”, Dale said, “This could be important.” I watched as Dale’s expression change and she began to cry and shouted THANK YOU, several times into the phone. I heard Dale say, “Yes, yes yes. Oh, I love you too honey. Just come home.”
She listened further, agreed to whatever the caller instructed. She disconnected the call and, her face wet with tears and half laughing, half crying she exclaimed, “They found her!”
The call was from the South Carolina State Police. It seems a State Trooper had seen a car stopped on the side of the road on Interstate 95. He stopped to see if there was a problem and found Dale’s daughter. She had just then, run out of gas.
Dale look at me and said, “SEE! I knew God would hear your prayers!”
“That’s nice, Dale, I protested, “But, God already knew what was going to happen. And it wasn’t my prayers. It was you crying out to Him. It was God at work for you and your daughter. I just happened to be in the way. Please, no credit here. Give all the credit to God.”
What was that? I mean, it happened just like I have explained. What was that?
#5.
ARE YOU A PRAYING MAN?
It was the first Thursday of December, 2012. My eye sight clouded over. I called my ophthalmologist’s office for an emergency appointment.
The doctor examined my eyes and told me to immediately call my family physician. There was blood in my eye and he could not identify the source, but, he said it was from a source outside the eye and it looked bad.
I called my family doctor’s office and explained what the ophthalmologist said. The nurse spoke to the doctor and he told me to come in on Monday.
The “curtain” lingered over my eye sight, but got no worse.
On Saturday, my wife and I went to breakfast with friends. At the end of breakfast, I told my wife I need to get home. I was not feeling ‘right’. When she asked me what was wrong, I could only tell her that something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t pinpoint the problem.
We got home and I sat down and closed my eyes to rest. After a few minutes, my wife asked me how I was feeling.
I opened my eyes to talk to her and I was shocked that half of her face was gone! I practically shrieked, “What happened to your face?”
My outburst frightened her and with a confused look she said, “What do you mean?”
“Your face! What has happened to your face?” I yelled.
She ran to a mirror then came back to the room I was in and said, “Get up. I’m taking you to the hospital emergency room”.
By this time I had regained my vision and I said, “No. It’s OK now. I just need a walk and something to eat. I’m OK”.
I went for a walk. By the time I got home my vision was distorted again. My wife made me get into our car and she drove to the emergency room.
I went to the receiving window to check in. The lady behind the window asked what I needed. I couldn’t talk.
The next thing I knew is she had sounded an alarm and several people emerged with a gurney, put me on the gurney and away I went to an examination room.
My wife showed up and was asking about me. I had regained my ability to talk so I asked the nurse, “Why do you have a sign on the wall that says “U-R-S-E-S S-T-A-T-I”?
The nurse turned toward me and said, “That’s called vision cut! This man’s having a stroke.”
The nurse leaned over me and asked, “Are you a praying man?”
“Yes”, I replied.
“Well, now would be a good time to start”, she said.
The rest is a partial blur. A neurologist barking orders. And M.R.I. Something called a “clot buster”. Then, a bed in intensive care.
After 2 days in intensive care, one of the two neurologists working on me, came by to say he didn’t think I had a stroke. I was relieved. I was thinking, perhaps I could go home.
Later that day, the neurologist came back to inform me he had read the M.R.I. and I had not had one, but two strokes. There were two “dead spots” on my brain.
The fourth day I had progressed enough that I was moved to the general hospital area. My speech was coming back and my vision had come back. I was a bit ‘wobbly’ but improved.
My wife, my family and I were praying this entire time. And now, after 4 days, I was wanting to go home. I felt it was time. So, I got out of my bed and started walking the hospital halls.
My nurse saw me and demanded I get back into bed. I told her and doctor that I was feeling good enough and that I was ready to go home. They said I needed to lay down and rest.
I got out of the bed and started dressing. They said they couldn’t make me stay there, but that I would have to ride to my car in a wheelchair. I refused and walked to my car (still wobbly, but walking).
Two weeks later, I preached the Sunday evening service at my Church. Many responded.
About six month later, as I like to say it, “The lights came back on in my head, fully”.
About a year later a checkup and another M.R.I., showed I had indeed had two strokes and there were two separate dead areas on my brain.
As I write this, over 11 years have passed.
#6.
YEP. THAT’S GOING TO SCAR.
I returned to my ophthalmologist for a check-up several months after having a stroke. I was still bothered by some kind of obstruction in my eye. The doctor informed me that a blood clot had passed through my eye and had scarred the lens.
I asked if it could be corrected? The doctor told me that there was nothing that could be done, but over time I would become accustomed to the scarring and it would be less annoying.
Several months later, while at church, I was relating the trouble with the scarring in my eye to a friend, and she said she had a similar problem that had resolved itself. She asked if she could ‘lay hands over my eye’ and pray. I agreed. Sadly, nothing happened.
Then several months later I became aware that the obstruction of my vision had cleared up.
At the conclusion my next ophthalmologist checkup, the doctor said my eyes were looking very good.
I asked him about the scarring. He said, “there is no scarring in your eyes”.
I asked him to review his chart notes. He studied the notes and muttered, “Well, that’s odd.”
I asked him what he meant and he replied, “The scarring is gone. Well, good for you.”
“But I thought you said it was a permanent scar. What do you think happened?”, I pressed.
“I don’t know”, he answered. “I just don’t know.”
I related how a friend had prayed for my eye to heal and asked if now it is healed?
“Well, I don’t know about that!”, he retorted.
“Okay”, I said. “I do know. I have had great medical care, but I have a greater God who has shown me mercy and has healed my eye!”
“Whatever”, the doctor smugly replied.
As I was paying my bill, the young medical assistant told me that she had heard my exchange with the doctor, and she knew what had happened – “It was a miracle”, she said.
What has happened? Well, there are just so many of these stories in my life. What do you think? Was it God. Was it miracles? I believe it was and is!
I could go on and tell you about how God saved us and our marriage 43 years ago.
I could tell you how we couldn’t have children until we were 37 years old, then we had two, and the first one was born on my birthday! (really, God?)
Or, I could tell you about…
Well, there are just too many.
Too me it’s pretty obvious. What do you think?
Your Brother and Friend,
Mike Young
(I fall short, so often. And, many times, feel like I am not worthy of God’s abounding Grace or the favors He has shown and continues to show me. But I am always deeply grateful. The older I have gotten, the more humbled I feel by His Goodness and His endless Mercies.)
LYING PUTS YOU IN LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL.
THE TRUTH MAKES YOU ONE WITH GOD THE FATHER.
