Marvel With Me

Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer.  And a man who had been lame from his mother's womb was being carried along, whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple.  When he saw Peter and John about to go into the temple, he began asking to receive alms.  But Peter, along with John, fixed his gaze on him and said, "Look at us!"  And he began to give them his attention, expecting to receive something from them.  But Peter said, "I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you:  In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene--walk!"  And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and his ankles were strengthened.  With a leap he stood upright and began to walk; and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God.  And all the people saw him walking and praising God; and they were taking note of him as being the one who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.  

While he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them at the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement.  But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, "Men of Israel  why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us, as if by our own power of piety we had made him walk?  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him.  But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses, And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.  - Acts 3:1-16 

Aaron and I enjoy listening to good music.  When we first became parents, we decided that although we are 'music people' (we both attended college to become music teachers), we were not going to force music down our children's throats.  How blessed we are that all of our children enjoy music in some shape or form.  Since our faith is so important to us, it made sense to provide them with some great CD's and DVD's with Bible songs on them.  Sometimes one of those songs can get stuck in my head for awhile.  This week, I've been humming a tune from one of those CD's.  It goes like this:

"Peter and John went to pray.
They met a lame man on the way.
He asked for alms and held out his palms,
and this is what Peter did say:
"Silver and gold have I none,
but such as I have give I thee.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk!"
He went walking and leaping and praising God...."

So tonight I just had to look up the passage that children's song comes from.  It's found in Acts 3.  I have to tell you after reading several times it still gives me chills.  To think of a man paralyzed from birth able to walk and leap immediately at Peter's invocation of Jesus's name blows me away!  Not only was he healed, but he was completely healed.  He wasn't limping.  He didn't get tired.  He didn't need therapy.  He was LEAPING and praising God!  WOW!  How AWESOME is our God!

Haven has been working diligently at walking since the stroke following her heart surgery on March 19, 2013 - just four weeks and two days ago.  At first she couldn't even support her weight.  She screamed if we even tried to put her feet on the floor.  Then, two weeks ago she was standing while holding on.  And then she was suddenly standing alone a day or two later.  Daily her legs became stronger, but she was having significant trouble with balance until last weekend when Haven surprised her daddy by showing him that she could walk a few feet by herself from me to him.  Seeing my husband's surprise was a pretty cool moment for me.  (I had seen her take a few steps earlier that day in therapy.)  Well, this week Haven improved so very gradually that I didn't fully realize how well she was doing until today when she determinedly removed her little hand from mine so she could walk unassisted.  I panicked, thinking surely she would take a nose dive at any moment and moved into position to catch her.  Remarkably, that feisty little girl kept walking, and walking, and walking....until I realized that she had walked at least 25 feet - all by herself!  It was at that point that I finally took my eyes off of her body and glanced at her face.  I couldn't look away.  Stunning!  It was so beautiful!  Our baby girl was just glowing with sheer joy!  Planted on her face was one of the best smiles I've ever seen, her dimples were deep and beautiful, and she was making this excited, giggly girl sound.  As I stared at her, the words, "...Walking and leaping and praising God..." went through my mind.  Praise God!

At least once daily, I hear someone at the hospital marvel at how well Haven is doing and how quickly she is progressing.  Many of them are therapists who met her in the PICU when she was unable to move anything but her head and eyes.  That was only three weeks ago.  Three weeks!  Don't misunderstand, she still has a long way to go, but merely three weeks ago I saw the scans of our daughter's brain.  It was terrifying and there appeared to be such large areas of damage.  Not one doctor would even give a glimmer of hope because the pathways in the brain are such an unknown, unpredictable thing.  Now they marvel at her progress.  Aaron and I marvel at Haven's progress as well, but we are not surprised that He who Created the human brain is able to heal it.  Instead, we are in awe of how powerful, how AWESOME, how incredible our God truly is.

God always answers prayers, but sometimes His answer isn't the one we hoped for (like when we found out Haven had a stroke).  From the beginning, friends have asked what they can do for us.  My answer has always been and will continue to be, "Pray for Haven's full recovery.  Pray that in a year from now we can hold up our daughter and say, "Look what God can do!""  To him be the glory!