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It was written in God’s word that when Joshua led the Israelites, he was very intentional in reminding them what God had done for them. He encouraged them to cling to God alone and to keep the memory of God’s faithfulness alive in the family of God’s people. Reading this inspired me to make my own commitment to try to talk about how I see God working and to try to trust in Him alone. I have found that when I’m not intentional about this, I begin to forget and take for granted all the treasures that God has given me. I want to remember and talk about the miraculous recovery that a good friend of mine made last year. It’s been almost a year now since February 18, 2013 that my dear friend Terri Lytle survived a Subarachnoid Hemmhorage. I’ve written about this in a blog on Greatness Occurs Daily “G.O.D” on the Suncreek website (CLICK TO READ). I left that piece asking our congregation to pray that Terri regain the ability to swallow as she recovered from her aneurysm. Within a few weeks after coming out of a coma, she regained the ability to swallow and other functions that she had lost. She made a remarkable turn around and was left dealing with a few problems like headaches and drop foot.
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She is now back serving in her many roles as wife to Steve, mother of 4, taking care of a sister who is ill, as a surgery nurse and an active member of her church. She now lives with a renewed sense of purpose and conviction to help others to know God’s love. What was most profound to me and will remain in my soul forever was what happened right before the aneurysm. It was so amazing to me that right before Terri passed out, she spoke Gods word (Psalm 84:5) to her sisters in Christ. She stood up at her WIC meeting and explained what her talk would be about and recited from memory “Blessed are those whose strength are in God in whose hearts have highways to Zion.” For her to suffer such devastation and have her family told that she had only a 10% chance of living and survive was a miracle. But more outstanding was her rapid recovery and to come back four months later and lead this retreat on Pilgrimage was divine intervention. I believe with all my being that God was speaking through Terri and touching so many with His grace and love. God’s love was all over this as so many witnessed a godly husband at his wife’s side. There were 12,000 plus posts of prayers and support from God’s word on a Caring Bridge site. Friends of Terri’s who had never prayed were now praying for the first time. A body of Christ kept there eyes on Jesus as their pastor spoke of Psalm 62 during her time in the coma. He urged their congregation to remember David who kept his trust in God ALONE for his hope in times of devastation.
I realized that our prayers were answered in a way that we wanted for our earthly lives. I have personally experienced the opposite of this as well. I struggle to wrap my “dust brain” around why I’ve had friends that were just like Terri in spreading God’s love didn’t survive. This is where I have to let go and trust in a God so much bigger than I can conceptualize. So when I ask God what He wants me to know and do with this experience I feel Him gently putting His hand on my chin & turning my head to look to the cross. I hear Him saying to me, “remember there is nothing-neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither present nor future nor any powers, neither height nor depth or anything in all creation that can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:38-39)
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