Awaiting my arrival was my parents and my sister. My sister, Carol, lives in Kansas. She iss visiting with our family, thanks to her husband. If you are new to my blog, you may not know that my sister suffered a devastating illness several years back. After visiting in Louisiana with our family, Carol returned home to Kansas and suddenly became quite ill. The doctors in the small town where she lives diagnosed her wrongly with a stroke. However, thankfully, her son had her lab work sent to the hospital where he is employed in Denver. It was determined that she, in fact, had not suffered a stroke but had meningitis. Carol then went into a coma. She was transferred to the Swedish Hospital in Denver where she remained for several months. One day she awoke, fully restored and we were thrilled. However, before she could leave the hospital, it appeared that she had suffered a relapse and went back into a coma. The meningitis had triggered another disease called, "Hashimoto Encelephathy." The second coma lasted for months and when she regained consciousness, her long-term and short-term memory were gone. We are now two-years post this illness and her memory (long and short) have not returned. Learning to live with this change in her life has been difficult (especially) for her and her family.
Our visits are not frequent as we live in different states. But, each time we visit, I pray that there has been some improvement in her condition...some glimmer of hope that God is healing her and that she is being full restored. Webster defines restoration as "an act of restoring or the condition of being restore: as a bringing back to a former position or condition; reinstatement." It is that definition of restoration that our family has prayed for Carol...to be fully restored and brought back to a former condition.
Fastforward to this past Monday. Disappointingly, things are pretty much the same with my sister's condition. Her memory is like swiss cheese. There are miliseconds of clarity and then the memory retreats as quickly as it appears only to return to the tricky vault where her memories reside.
It was time for breakfast yesterday (Tuesday) and our mother had been saying the blessing at our meals, but Carol spoke up and said she wanted to say the blessing. We were all thrilled!!! We bowed our heads and she began to pray. I wish a thousand times that every word she spoke could have been recorded. The prayer she prayed transcended all physical limitations and ascended to Heaven at warp speed! It was one of the most beautiful prayers I've ever heard! When lunch came around, we gathered again at the table and Carol asked me to pray. I smiled at her and told her that she had blessed my heart so much by her prayer at breakfast that I wanted to hear her pray again. She humbly bowed her head and prayed. Tears streaming down my face, ears tuned to her prayer, I sat in the presence of a saint of God. What a priviledge and honor to listen to an intimate conversation between God and my sister. She spoke to him personally. It was beautiful, intimate and precious!
Normally on the long drive back to my home there would have been praise music accompanying me as I drove. This time the car was silent...only quiet...listening to God, thanking God for the time with my sister and our family. God continues to do mighty things in and through each of us. Although the outward and physical part of my sister seemed unrestored, the inward and spiritual part of her thrives and lives on to bless and teach and to love.
I see my prayers for healing for her differently now. There is so much of what we don't know and understand about the scope of God's love for each of us. Healing looks different to each of us. In our prayers for healing, we picture what it might look like or what we believe is God's will...and sometimes, God reveals that His healing looks a whole lot different that we expected.
Her body may appear as though it is stuck in the disease. But this disease has no power over God. If you are praying for someone and not seeing a "physical" healing, do not think that God is not healing! He most definitely is!!!
But we have this treasure in jars of clay
to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
2 Corinthians 4:7
2 comments:
I feel in my spirit that there are very specific people that need to read this...and will read this and be so encouraged by your words.
We always say that God can redeem anything and I think this is lived out so strongly in Aunt KK. If she had already been healed from the physical manifestations of this disease, who is to know if she would be so free to bless her God and her family (and anyone else she comes in contact with)?
LOVE the new design, mom!! AND love you. As always, we're covering you in prayer.
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