Four Weeks Later

Dear Fans, Friends, Fiends, Foes, Family, Followers and Foundlings,

I wonder if there is a proper etiquette for dealing with someone who has had a miraculous healing? The Pharisees and religious leaders in Jesus’ time didn’t seem to think so.  When you read in the Bible, John chapter 9, the whole thing is really amazing, from Jesus spitting to the Pharisees kicking the man out of the synagogue.

Is it like that when someone who has been in church for many years comes up several days later and says, “So, how are you doing?  Are you still doing okay?”  In other words, “Are you still healed?”  One of the ways we discovered the severity of the weakness of the right side was that she had been driving and “had to press down on the brake pedal with all her might.”  At first the thought was that something was wrong with the brakes but it wasn’t, so she had given up driving over a year ago.  So, when she offered to drive someone in the family somewhere, that person turned to Margaret and asked if she was going to be good to do that.  “Yes, she got healed, remember?”

But, I think this attitude and these types of questions is more simply one of looking for reassurance, because if God can miraculously heal you and now you don’t need the crutches or anything else, what else can He do?  What other miracles are possible?  Everyone knew about her problems, her balance issues, when she had a “good night” she only needed the one crutch, the huge quantities of antibiotics, including intravenous antibiotics, the pain, the pain, the pain…Everyone in church and around the country that have anything to do with our church, knew her situation.  So, this was, as the scripture says, a notable miracle.

Of course the biggest and most dramatic effect was right here in the house.  She said she felt like she did ten years ago when she was seventeen.  She has been doing a lot of work around here and for the church.  She baked and sold eighteen pumpkin rolls to raise money for a Bible college in Africa, has been going on bike rides with her mom, doing yard work and house work and all sorts of things that she hadn’t been able to do.  She went and talked to the Pastor and his wife to get some guidance on what to do next.  The basic gist of the conversation was that God had given her back her life so what can she do to give her life back to God?  One of the things that came out of that meeting was her reenrolling in college.

When she called the doctor’s office a week later, the receptionist seemed confused.  Why would you call the doctor if you were feeling better?  The only time people call is when they are getting worse and need the doctor right away.  She had been scheduled for a phone appointment the following Tuesday.  The day before she was supposed to have the appointment the doctor’s office called her and asked if she could have a face-to-face appointment instead.

“And you haven’t been taking any of your medicine for the last three and a half weeks?”

“Nope.  I’m better.”

“You haven’t been taking any of the supplements or anything?”

Then the testing began.  The eye-tracking, the balance, the strength, and every other test they had done and a few they had never done, just to make sure.

“Stand on one foot.”

“Stand on the other foot.”

“Follow my finger this way with your eyes.”

“Close your eyes, stand on one foot, touch your nose.”

“Other  one.”

“Jump up and down on one leg with your arms out and your eyes closed.”

“Stand on one leg, close your eyes, sing the Star Spangled Banner backwards while juggling three rubber chickens and a whoopee cushion.”  Okay, well, I might have made that one up, but you get the idea.

“Now, you know, if you have a relapse or need to see me again, you don’t have to be ashamed.  I mean, we never even began treating for the co-infections that go with this.  Well, we will need to make an appointment for you to have the port removed.  Will you consider donating your left over drugs to the clinic?”

“Yes ma’am.  I’ll be happy to.”

The surgical removal of the port on Monday is the last step.

Remember, the Good Book says, “He answered and said…one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”