I talked to my wise brother-in-law and his lovely wife and they think we see very few miracles in America because we expect so much. We expect to own a house in our lifetime. We expect a car, a job, access to clean water, enough food, a good education. We expect to live in a land that is ruled with justice and freedom. We absolutely expect to be well in body, to the point that we are offended when we are ill. Many people in the rest of the world would consider it a miracle to have even a few of these things in their lives. We have all of them, or most of them, almost every day and we're still unimpressed with God.
We've been having miracles in the Bumstead house, since day one. But most people would deny them to be miracles. Because they seem too small. Too regular. Angels didn't trumpet them, the voice of God didn't shake our house. But to us they are real, tangible miracles that remind us that God is part of our struggle and that He's protecting us constantly and answering our prayers.
This weekend I absolutely expected Grace to be inpatient. Last Thursday showed Grace's ANC and white counts were low, and as she's been taking three hour naps daily and has been bruising, I was expecting a fever to happen for sure. And fevers always mean a three night minimum stay at the hospital.
Today her counts are even lower. The doctors were even surprised that things haven't improved. But instead of running fevers, she's running circles. She's swimming and laughing and playing. That is a miracle. Maybe not to some, but to us it is.
Twice in this ordeal Grace has started fevers. Twice we prayed and the fevers went down to normal within an hour or so. And of course there have been many times we prayed against fevers and they took days instead of hours to resolve, but those two times were there to remind me that God is still active and listening.
And those times it took days and weeks for her to heal, and it took the assistance of a boatload of medicine, we still find it a miracle that she healed. Personally I believe medicine is a miracle. I believe it is a miraculous that God has given us the ability to create medicine from the elements in our own environment. There is also no part of medicine that isn't "natural," as even the derivatives and compounds created in labs still originate from the atoms God created at the beginning. That's miraculous.
As Grace still has very low counts a fever could come anytime. Infections are so common at this phase, and even a simple infection can be life threatening. But I have total peace right now. I know that God has brought us this far and His promises to never leave us or forsake us are true. I know that in life and in death He has kept us in the palm of his hands. He has been our very real help in time of need.
And peace that is stronger than the fear of death is a miracle.
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