“Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: Which made heaven and earth, the sea and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever.” {Psalm 146:5-6}
I remember about 6-7 years ago my niece Nana who was two years old was rushed to the Columbia Presbyterian Children’s Hospital in New York City because her left lung had collapsed. She started out at first at the Staten Island Hospital suffering from pneumonia, but somehow something that should have been a normal procedure to get her better, she progressively got worse. Then, her lung collapsed and her life hung in the balance. A doctor friend suggested Presbyterian Hospital and so my sister had requested for her to be transferred there. This was our last resort before we completely lost her. She was put in a coma for her safety and really by this time the doctors were predicting she may not make it. Everyone was such in a state of panic because clearly the baby was fading away fast everyday from us.
A couple of nights after she was taken to the new hospital, an alarming text had come in from my sister telling me that her other lung had collapsed, and that Nana’s blood pressure had come down drastically and is entering the “danger zone” of death. If she doesn’t come out of that the doctors are saying she will be gone for sure. They started working hard on trying to get her blood pressure back to the safe zone as much as possible before she starts flatlining. I remember rushing before God and kneeling in my bedroom floor before a chair and screaming on the top of my lungs to the Lord, “No! No! Do not take her away! I beseech you to heal her! Bring her back! Do whatever you want with me, take me, I give myself to you, do whatever you want with me, but please don’t let my sister’s daughter die!” All I could see is my sister’s face and I couldn’t bear it. I know being with the Lord is the best place to be and Nana would not suffer any more pain, but the thought of my sister’s sorrow in losing the daughter that she had asked the Lord for, was something I didn’t want to deal with. She had miscarried before having Nana and had been so sad about losing that pregnancy. She has a son, Aaron, who is five years old but she wanted a daughter next. My family and I helped her pray for the Lord to give her a daughter. I remember even seeing a vision of my little niece before she was conceived and told this to my sister to encourage her, and now this. So I pounded the heavens and screamed to the Lord telling him he can take my life, use it for his glory, do whatever he wants with me, but give my niece back to us.
Sometime that night I got a text back from my sister letting us know that Nana was taken out of the danger zone. Her blood pressure came back to safety. The only problem now is that because both her lungs are gone she’s still in danger. Who knows what will happen to her. We can definitely lose her again. Her lungs somehow have to be fixed.
I remember the next day being in a church service Sunday morning and silently weeping my heart out to the Lord during the service. A sister in the church saw me kneeling down weeping like this and the Lord must have touched her because she came to me and told me that whatever it was that I was praying for, the Lord has heard me. On the way home in the car I got this in my spirit: “I will fix her lungs”.
When I got home I went straight to my room to pray. I felt so heavy in my heart and I felt I must get a hold of the Lord again. I walked back and forth in my room not knowing how to start, when I sensed the presence of God hovering in my room over the bed. I went and knelt down by the bed near the headboard and started to commune with the Lord when I heard clearly again in my spirit, “I will fix her lungs”. I got up and quickly texted this to my sister. Then the Lord told me to rejoice and praise him and thank him for Nana’s healing and her lungs. I texted this too to my sister and told her to rejoice. I didn’t hear back from my sister right away but started rejoicing anyway. Unbeknownst to me at the very moment when I had texted her (before she had even seen the text), a special team led by the head surgeon followed by several other surgeons came to my sister and told her, “We have come to fix her lungs. Do not worry, we will fix her lungs.” They used those exact words – fix her lungs, just as the Lord had told me. She said that’s the first time she has heard anything positive come out of a doctor’s mouth since this ordeal had begun. It seemed to her for awhile there everyone was cautioning her and trying to discourage her from hoping for the best. There was this death hovering over Nana and for the first time in a long time there was hope. This time this group of surgeons came and told her they will fix Nana’s lungs. When she saw my text she knew the Lord was the one who has come, and that he is on the case now. I remember her texting back to me and telling me, “Yes, Amen. We will.” And so the rest of the family was told to rejoice and everyone began to praise and thank the Lord for Nana’s healing.
The surgeons worked on her lungs and to make a long story short, Nana began to mend. She was in the hospital pediatric intensive care unit for over a month. At one point she had lost her ability to walk, and had to be retrained. I kept praying and thanking the Lord for her strength and little by little the Lord strengthened her. Today she is a happy nine-year old girl and is doing extremely well! Thank you, Jesus. The doctors had said that given time her lungs will function well again and she will recover.
Truly God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. {Psalm 46:1} When there is no one else to turn to we can turn to him and find his help. If we are surrendered to him and to his desires there is nothing that he will not do for us.
“Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: Which made heaven and earth, the sea and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever.” {Psalm 146:5-6}
