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Carolyn Slaughter  |
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| I Peter 5:6-9 6: Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. 7: Cast all your anxieties on him, for he cares about you. 8: Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking some one to devour. 9: Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. |
 As my mom, sister and I waited during surgery, God
sent his reassurance through the sense of a warm presence with us. We hung onto scripture
from the book of I Peter 5: 7-10 for hope: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he
cares for you...After you have suffered for a little while, God himself will restore you
and make you strong." God will lift you up in due time......The warmth of that
promise continued on through rehab and the homecoming. As days stretched into months and months into years, my questions began to
grow. God, there’s not much improvement, where’s the restoration? Hasn’t
this suffering gone on for more than a little while? Ten long years of life being totally
different than what Mom and Dad had ever expected or planned on. I think we struggled as
much as Dad did. It’s hard to stand by and watch someone you love suffer, to have
them withdraw from you. It was hard to watch Mom work so hard and begin to age as a
result.I kept
looking for traces of the angel who brought promises of God’s comfort and healing. I
looked to where the angel had been, and all I saw was a leftover pile of feathers.
Obviously, that angel was out of there.....God, where’s your angel? Each year the
number of feathers, the reminders of God’s promise got fewer and fewer. Where’s
the result of the miracle we thought would happen? I kept looking for that day when Dad
would rise up out of his chair and walk - no, run - with a whole, working body. Instead,
we just kept moving through a long string of ordinary days while nothing seemed to be
happening.The
miracle of Dad’s restoration happened in a way we didn’t expect. On May 1, 1992,
Dad was lifted up. It was only after he died that I could see the miracle had taken
place. He was fully restored, only in death, not life.I learned
a lot about miracles over those years. I learned miracles can take a long time. I learned
that miracles are more about stretches of ordinary days and God forming us than about
instant flashes of light. The few supernatural days we may experience are based on
thousands of ordinary days and how we live those days out. |
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| Luke 1:38 38: And Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her. |
 We’re talking about the Mary Miracle -
this thirteen year old chosen by God to carry his entrance into the world. I think Mary
learned a lot about the miracle she was carrying, too. Look with me at Luke 1. A miracle
may ignite in a moment; it may even cause a temporary adrenaline rush. But look at what
happened to Mary in verse 38: after she received her miracle, "then the angel left
her." No living in the glow of an angelic visitation - she was on her own now. |
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I don’t know about you, but I swear
there have been times in my life when