Manna and Miracles: How God Saved an Eye and Saves Souls
Alina was seven years old when the eye doctor she'd had her whole life noticed that her left-eye retina was detached. She'd had issues with this eye since birth. It was stricken with glaucoma congenitally, and was virtually blind from her earliest days. At one, she underwent surgery at the hands of one of the world's best eye surgeons to relieve the pressure and salvage the eye, though not its sight (BTW-pictures of the inside of Alina's eye from that operation have been seen across the world by people attending this doctor's lectures on eye surgery. Undoubtedly, the inside of Alina's eye is one of the most famous eye insides in the world!).
But as if blindness in the eye was not trial enough this new report in her seventh year was not good. A detached retina leads to screaming pain, the only remedy for which is removal of the eye and the implanting of an artificial eye, a trial on top of her other trials that we simply longed that she would not need to bear.
She was sent to the Wills Eye Institute in Philly, where surgeons tried to laser-rivet the retina back in place just to keep it there so it would not cause any more problems or pain. But a week after surgery when we followed up at the doctors, they grieved to report that the surgery had not worked. The retina was still detached, and they did not have any real clue what to do next. They told us to return in a week and they would give us any options they might suggest.
We'd been praying all along, as had hundreds of friends, family, and perfect strangers (who loved and trusted the same Savior we did). So we prayed on for God to save Alina's eye. Seven days later we returned to Wills Eye and awaited the doctors' advice. They took her in, examined her eye, and then hurried out to tell us what they had found: the retina was re-attached. That's right: that which was humanly, naturally and physically impossible and therefore unheard of, had happened. The retina had returned to where it belonged "on its own" and there it has stayed to this day.
In this case our doctors were humble and honest enough to say, and they do to this very hour, that they have no explanation for what happened except that it had to be a miracle. It was God. Retinas do not re-attach any more than the mute talk or the deaf hear or a dog flies. It just does not and can not happen.
But it did.
Friends this is the hand of God.
God is; God cares; God moves; God heals; God saves eyes.
And by the way: God saves souls too. He saves them from hell, from sin, from bondage to fear and drugs and anxiety and depression and anger and soul-hollowing despair. God saves eyes to remind us that He is God and that He is a Savior whose arm is not so short that it cannot deliver (Isaiah 50:2).
I invite you today to come afresh to Him to seek His salvation of your soul from your sin and need, for your joy in your God.
But as if blindness in the eye was not trial enough this new report in her seventh year was not good. A detached retina leads to screaming pain, the only remedy for which is removal of the eye and the implanting of an artificial eye, a trial on top of her other trials that we simply longed that she would not need to bear.
She was sent to the Wills Eye Institute in Philly, where surgeons tried to laser-rivet the retina back in place just to keep it there so it would not cause any more problems or pain. But a week after surgery when we followed up at the doctors, they grieved to report that the surgery had not worked. The retina was still detached, and they did not have any real clue what to do next. They told us to return in a week and they would give us any options they might suggest.
We'd been praying all along, as had hundreds of friends, family, and perfect strangers (who loved and trusted the same Savior we did). So we prayed on for God to save Alina's eye. Seven days later we returned to Wills Eye and awaited the doctors' advice. They took her in, examined her eye, and then hurried out to tell us what they had found: the retina was re-attached. That's right: that which was humanly, naturally and physically impossible and therefore unheard of, had happened. The retina had returned to where it belonged "on its own" and there it has stayed to this day.
In this case our doctors were humble and honest enough to say, and they do to this very hour, that they have no explanation for what happened except that it had to be a miracle. It was God. Retinas do not re-attach any more than the mute talk or the deaf hear or a dog flies. It just does not and can not happen.
But it did.
Friends this is the hand of God.
God is; God cares; God moves; God heals; God saves eyes.
And by the way: God saves souls too. He saves them from hell, from sin, from bondage to fear and drugs and anxiety and depression and anger and soul-hollowing despair. God saves eyes to remind us that He is God and that He is a Savior whose arm is not so short that it cannot deliver (Isaiah 50:2).
I invite you today to come afresh to Him to seek His salvation of your soul from your sin and need, for your joy in your God.
Labels: Blessing, Faith, God's Blessing, Prayer
posted by Tim Shorey at
9:22 AM
3 Comments:
The comments keep coming in on the past few days posts; wonderful! Make sure you check them all.
I can feel hearts rejoicing in God; nothing so pleases this man's heart.
Alleluia.
Here is an unusual story:
Some years ago, I was driving home from my job after dark. It had been a hectic week, full of Food Service details, and there was unusual pressure at home (for some reason I don't recall). I was feeling drained, and (poor me) somewhat unappreciated.
Often, on these long stretches of road I ask the Lord for protection from the deer. We do not carry comprehensive auto insurance on any of our vehicles, and so we have trusted the Lord to keep the deer out of our path.
On this particular night, I remember thinking that it might be nice to be laid up in the hospital for a week or two. I could rest, and folks might get a better feel for the contribution I make. They were pitiful, selfish thoughts. And yet they were very real for a few moments... almost welcoming the idea of striking a deer and having enough of an accident to lay me aside for just a few days.
This was sinful-- I suddenly confessed, and changed my heart, praying: "Lord, please protect this vehicle from any deer that might dart out."
Would you believe that on that stretch of Lacey Road, west of the Parkway, in the next moment after having just confessed this sinful thought pattern, that a deer darted out? I missed him by perhaps 1 foot!
Was the Lord warning me that, if indeed I foolishly asked him to remove his protecting hand, that he might just accomodate me!
Thank you Lord, for that reminder. Help me not to give in to self-pity or momentary despair like that.
When I was born the dr wasn't in the room and I was born in 7 mins. Someone tried to actually keep me in until the dr could get to the room. I was born with brain damage. I don't know if I would have been or if it was from the person trying to push me back in, but I was. I had seizures until I was 3. There is debate if I had one at 13. I was raised Catholic and my mom took me to a healing mass when I was 7. When I was 17 I had a EEG and the dr looked at the results and looked at the folder to make sure it was the right patient. It was normal. He said there is no medical reason for you to ever have a normal EEG, but I did. My mom swears it was from the healing mass 10 yrs earlier. Only God know that answer. The dr told me I could stop my seizure medicine at 18, I had stopped much earlier. I would get scolded from the nurses for not taking my medicine regularly during my teen years. On my 18th birthday I flushed my medicine down the drain and have not been on any since then.
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