One Year Ago
January 22, 2021
Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Peter. Now Peter’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them. (Luke 4:38-39, NIV)
One year ago today I had pancreatic surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The surgeon there miraculously removed a tumor that was wreaking havoc with my blood sugar and destroying my body.
I say “miraculously” because what happened to me was nothing short of a miracle. I like the way Eugene Peterson defines the term “miracle.” He says it’s not some unexplainable act of magic, but rather, “It’s what God does for us, or does for us through other people, that we can’t do ourselves.”
Jesus did it. He used the doctors and the medical staff to help me and heal me, and I am humbled and grateful.
I can never be the same. What am I to do with such a gift?
For me this past year has been a time of recovery and reflecting upon God’s hand in my life. Looking back over the months and years of illness, struggle, questions and tears, I can see that Jesus was so very faithful and good to me. Through it all my heart was formed into something fresh, hopeful and alive. Even before my physical healing took place, Jesus healed my heart with His living water. The old has gone, the new has come! I have grown in His immense love, I have felt the peace and the presence of God sustaining me, and I have seen the beauty of the Body of Christ in their love and through their prayers lifted to the Lord on my behalf.
Like Peter’s mother-in-law in Luke 4, I am back into regular life, but it is with a new strength. I take up the duties of my life with joy unspeakable. After being healed, it says that Peter’s mother-in-law, “got up at once and began to wait on them.” She served and ministered to those around her. It is beautiful to think that one of those that she ministered to was the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who healed her. May I do the same.
Through it all, Psalm 50:15 has come alive to me.
Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me. (NIV)
One year ago I called upon the Lord for help. Others stood with me in prayer and called upon the Lord on my behalf, and Jesus delivered me.
What am I to do with such a gift?
I will honor Jesus.
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