Two Miracles (part IV)

Four days later, I returned to hopefully capture another photograph of the hummingbird feeding off the Iris. I arrived at the botanical garden early and saw Shelly in the parking lot. I asked him about the Iris, and he told me the bloom had died, and he picked it off. He mentioned there must have been another bloom underneath it because a new bloom had opened.

I was excited about photographing the new bloom and hoped the hummingbird would come back. With all my equipment ready, I waited for her arrival. It began to drizzle a little bit, but I was determined to stay. I waited 15 minutes in the rain, and for some reason, I didn't have my face to the back of the camera. The hummingbird let her presence be known by the roar of her wings, but it was too late.  She buzzed around the Japanese Iris briefly before flying away. I was so disappointed.

During the hour and a half I waited, and she never returned. Although it had been drizzling the whole time, I was fortunate to have something to throw over my shoulders to keep me dry. I found another worker and told her Shelly should get the first bloom and press it for Jason’s mom. I left disappointed, but I think I may have one more try before the bloom is gone. 

I went back today, and the bloom had closed and wilted. I was disheartened, but I knew ahead of time that when the Lord allows me to photograph His divine appointments, they often occur only once. I am thankful for the two miracles He allowed me to document, and I will never forget the story. 

Two Miracles (part I)

Just this week, I learned about a touching story. A curator, Shelly, at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia knew about my blog and thought I'd like to hear a story. He wanted to show me something in the Iris garden, and I followed behind. There were no flowers blooming in the vast garden until he pointed out an Iris with a closed bloom about to open.

He told me about the flower and the amazing story behind it. What could be so neat about an Iris in the garden? This story is of one miracle turned two. The story of the flower is special because of a young man named Jason, who was a former employee in the garden, and the Japanese Iris was his favorite.

Jason was killed in a car wreck on September 18, 2012. Shelly took Jason’s mom some Iris plants and planted them at her house the month after he died.

"Jason was the greatest person you would ever meet," Shelly said.

The first miracle is the flower bloomed a year and one day after he passed away, but there's more. No other iris flowers are blooming anywhere in the garden. That one flower stood amongst hundreds of other iris plants with no blooms at all. To add to the miracle, Shelly said that particular plant had been in the ground for at least four or five years and had never bloomed in September.

The "Death” of My Cookie Shop? (part II)

The Lord answered my prayers when I asked for His wisdom concerning the shop. One way this happened was through the sororities at UGA. One of my workers invited her friends on Facebook to like our shop. This small gesture led to me visiting the sororities during their chapter meetings. I’d introduce myself, tell them about my shop, and bring them cookie cakes and goodies. 

     As I was running out of contacts to help the shop, the Lord sent another person. I asked Him twice if He wanted me to do the work or if He would, and both times, He sent more people to contact. He has a sense of humor and constantly reminds me He is in control. It is incredible to see Him work.

     I set foot in the gym for the last time as a P.E. teacher in the spring of 2008. I’ve given up so much for my shop. Quitting teaching to run the cookie shop has also been like a death. It makes it harder to think about moving the shop.

     I am here with my Isaac to sacrifice. I will sacrifice the shop to help someone reading this book if necessary. I would love the Lord to bring the business needed for the shop to stay open. It will take a miracle, but I believe in a God who does miracles, and He does them well.

U What “Isaac” may you need to sacrifice? U

 

****Photo of our hand decorated bouquet of cookies.

Back at the hospital again

When I arrived back in town, I heard about a mom (of two students at my school) who stopped breathing.  She was in the hospital.  I went to my shop and put together a bouquet of cookies for her.  I had never met their mom before, but again I felt I needed to go to the hospital for the girls.

When I got there, I asked the lady at the front desk what room she was in.  She pointed to two ladies and said she was her mom; the lady next to her was her sister.  They were on the way to her room.  I introduced myself to the ladies and went to the family ICU waiting room.  When I got there, the girls said hey, and I sat down and visited with the family.  A lady from my church was there, and I did not know she was the sister-in-law of whom I went to visit.  We chatted for a long time, and I told her since Mom passed away I have felt like I should be ministering to other people.  The lady I went to visit was called, “The Miracle Lady,” by the hospital staff.  They don’t really know how long she went without breathing.  She was revived, but they did not give her much hope.  The day I visited, I did not get to see her, but she was now awake and able to talk.  What a miracle!

"God can do it again!"

This particular day would turn out to be even harder.  Mom’s allergies had not been well lately, which made her have a lot of drainage.  She said the back of her throat was raw from all the drainage.  When she started coughing, I had to bring her a cup of water to try to settle her cough.  That didn’t always work, and I would have to get her a cough drop.  My sisters told me from their previous visits Mom started choking on her food.  Jennifer told me one time she thought she was going to have to do the Heimlich maneuver on Mom.

U  Do you know the Heimlich maneuver and CPR in case you need to use them?  U

That night as she was watching television, she started to have one of her coughing attacks.  Nothing seemed to work.  She leaned forward and dropped the cough drop out of her mouth.  She looked at me with despair and even though I tried not to panic, I did.  I saw she could not get her breath.  I looked to Dad that was sitting there the whole time, and I motioned for help.  He got up and lifted her up to walk outside on the porch so she could get cooled down.  She cooled down and got her breath.  She told me because I panicked, I made it worse.  That night before I went to bed, she apologized if she made me upset.  I don’t know if that conversation was brought on by Dad or not.

U   Are you remembering it is very important to your loved one for you to remain calm during stressful times?  U

I lay in bed that night going over all the events of the day and cried.  Another seed of doubt came into my mind.  I read my devotion for the night and the previous night’s devotion because I had not read it yet.  After I read both devotions, I skimmed through other devotions I had already done.  I stopped flipping through the book, and the book laid open to the devotion for February 2^nd.  I read the last few comments at the end of the page which read, “Write down one specific moment when God delivered you or gave you a miracle in some way, and thank him.  Then remind yourself that if God did it before, He can do it again!”  The title of the devotion was, “God Can Do It Again!”  That was all that I needed to read to sooth me and to give me reassurance.  I now had 110 % confidence He would heal Mom.  He was telling me to wait.  All I had to do was trust Him.

Before I left for the weekend, I decided to tell Dad briefly I thought Mom was going to be healed.  He listened and then replied, “We’re waiting.”  This in-depth answer, in a way surprised me a little.  My parents and I have never really had serious, in-depth conversations.  For example, when it came time for me to learn about the birds and the bees, they sent me to a weekend church retreat that was called, “Birds, Bees, Wees, and Human Sexualities.”

My parents don’t open up and talk about their emotions.  When we found out Mom was diagnosed with ALS, I became concerned.  I just did not think Mom would open up and share her feelings with Dad.  She had a lot of close friends, but I found out they “bounced” around bringing the subject up but did not discuss it directly.  So, I decided to write Mom a letter.  I sat on my front porch and poured my heart out to her.  It was a very difficult letter to write.  I told her I did not want her to bottle her feelings up and she can call me anytime to talk no matter the time.  She has not called yet, and I’m not expecting a phone call either.   

Fuller, Cheri. The One Year Book of Praying through the Bible. Wheaton:        Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2003. February 2.

The laying on of hands

 

 

 The laying on of hands was a subject I knew very little about.  I talked with Nancy; she told me about a time she saw healing personally when her son touched a hot oven.  She prayed the burns would happen to her and not her son.  She took his hand and grabbed it as she prayed.  An outline of his hand burned onto hers.  His hand was completely healed.  She had also shared a story about her laying hands on one of her children.  As she prayed over them and laid hands on them, she felt a warmth go through her hands, and then they were healed.  I shared with her what had been happening lately with Mom.  She wrote me a note and told me that the Lord’s way to heal her may be to take her to Heaven to be with Him.  This was not the first time I had heard this.

Aunt Julie sent me the water from France, she also wrote a note stating Mom may not be healed physically.  She stated the water was no, “magic potion.” 

The same week at work, a teacher asked for our prayers during our prayer meeting because she was struggling with depression.  Our administrator felt we should gather around her and lay hands on her.  We laid hands on her, and in the four years I have been at the school, I do not recall us doing that before.

I went to Mom’s house Valentine’s weekend, the same week I received the water from Aunt Julie.  The trip down to her house was very peaceful.  While I was driving, something in my hand felt as though it popped.  I felt a tingling and warmth in my hand.  I continued to drive and prayed He was healing her.  It was weird.

A few other strange instances have happened, and I wondered if He was healing her at that time.  Once I was driving in my car, and my head started tingling all over for no reason.  Another time I was in my bed, I had my eyes closed and saw a bright flash of light.

I had been thinking a lot about not wanting anything to do with Mom being healed because I did not want to take any of the credit.  I continually prayed He would touch her and heal her or just speak and she would be healed.  I had not told Mom up until this point about anything I was going through.  I did not know how to even bring up the conversation.  I also did not want to get her hopes up high if God decided not to heal her.  This is where I doubted again.

Mom and I were sitting at the kitchen table, and I started to speak then paused.  She asked me what I was going to say.  I sat there trying not to cry because I did not want her to get upset.  I told her I needed a minute.  My eyes were beginning to fill with tears.  We both looked away to help me pull myself together.  Lauren and Ashton were playing in the adjacent room, and I did not want to have the conversation in front of them.  I asked her if we could go into her bedroom.  I walked her into her room and helped her sit on her bed.  I had the box that had the water in it.

I proceeded to tell her everything.  She said it would be okay to pray over her.  She said she believed in miracles.  I told her I felt inadequate about what to do or say concerning the laying on of hands.  I opened the bottle, poured some water into my hand, laid my hand on her, and said a prayer.  I did not feel any warmth go through my hands and as I opened my eyes, I looked up and she had not been healed.  What a blow!!  I had felt like a failure in many ways.  I had probably gotten Mom’s hopes up high and that hurt a lot.  I told her I had to do what I thought I was supposed to do.  I helped her back up and took her back into the den.  To end the conversation, she told me she would call me when it happened.  Holding back the tears I said, “I better be the first one that you call.”

The kid’s devotions

Lauren and Ashton’s devotion book has been amazing.  There is a series of devotion books we normally get, but when I went to get the next one, the store had sold out.  I got them a new one in January, but it was not the one I wanted.  I don’t view me getting this particular devotion book by happenstance. 

I decided to go back and see how many previous devotions we had already read concerning healings and miracles.  One was from the book of Matthew.  Most of the devotions came from the book of Mark, which shows many of Jesus’ miracles, and a few from Luke.

Out of the twenty-two stories we have read so far, twelve of them have dealt with healing.  Many other things around us also pointed to healing and miracles.  My kids told me their Sunday school lessons concerned healing.