Have you ever heard the story of the sick man whose friends took apart a ceiling to lower him down to Jesus to be healed? Can you imagine the sheer desperation they must have felt to tear apart a building?
Recently I experienced a very similar situation, or at least maybe the desperation they may have felt. Cate, my daughter, broke her femur on December 13, which turned into a traumatic three days in the hospital.
If you’ve ever had to deal with a spica cast, you’ll commiserate with me. For Cate, her cast started at her armpits and went all the way down one leg to her ankle and down to the knee on the other leg with a bar between her knees. All of this to stabilize the bone and help it heal correctly.
When we got home, it only became worse. For Jeff and me, it was frustrating and just plain miserable. We put most of our life on hold; all activities came to a screeching halt. For Cate, the active soccer-playing, ballet-dancing, tractor- riding girl… her life must have felt like it was over. She went from being an independent girl to relying on her parents to take care of her every need.
Cate spent most of the month she was in the cast yelling, screaming, and crying. Jeff and I tried to keep her busy with new activities and ones she loved. We both got little sleep and we were both running out of patience. I felt desperate, exhausted, and all the other emotions I’m unable to put into words.
I prayed, cried, and begged to make it stop, to make her pain stop, to make the whole situation just end. I would look back through pictures of Cate standing on two legs and plead for Cate to be able to stand and run again. Although we had the world’s best doctors, my daughter was still broken. I would have torn apart a ceiling tenfold to get her to someone to heal her.
Cate is now standing and walking with her walker sporadically, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The dark times are ending soon. This situation is not final. She has started to walk again. God has the power to heal and to raise up new life. How grateful I am to God for the ability to overcome all things.
Mandi Moon, Director of St. Luke’s Children’s Center
