The God I serve.

I am still reeling from this week. My brain is going at a million miles per hour.

This week began with a nightmare that I desperately wanted to wake from. I thought I was going to lose my Dad, and there was nothing I could do for him, and I couldn't even get to him in time.

When the nightmare finally sank in, my heart & soul were unconsolable, not because I didn't know where my Dad would end up...in fact, I am blessed that my Dad is a believer. My plea was "no, not this way". Not with Mom being so close to retirement and finally getting to breathe, and with Dad being so far away and none of us being able to get to him.

The only thing I could do was pray. Pray the desperate big words of "God, please do the impossible for me"...and with me joined prayer after prayer, first from family, then from facebook contacts, then from their churches, and the prayer request went viral, and it was one of the most powerful displays of the body of Christ that I think I have ever felt.

I hate to hyper-spiritualize anything, and the scientist in me always wants to try to find some rational explanation, but there is nothing rational to be found here.

1) My dad happened to be in our home city and not on a flight or somewhere else. Some coincidental run-ins happened where friends and family bumped into each other and exchanged phone numbers to re-connect with Dad while he was visiting. One of these happened to be the director of a new wing in the hospital where my dad was taken to. Another happened to be one of the top neurologists in the area.

2) Dad deteriorated so bad that he was non-responsive. The doctors were forced between not doing the brain surgery and certain death, and doing the surgery at an elevated risk that he might not make it anyway. Doctors were surprised by how easy the surgery was, and how the bleeding had stopped. Somehow I would never group "brain surgery" and "easy" together...but they claim that the surgery couldn't have gone any better given the circumstances.

3) As soon as my dad was out of the OR, he immediately responded and recognized my uncle (also a doctor). The next morning, he was sedated, but speaking and thinking clearly. By the afternoon, he was even joking around.

4) The heavens opened, and my mom made it safely in travel as we kept hearing report after report of people amazed by how quickly Dad was recovering. By the time she got to him, his head bandages were off, he can move his hands and feet, recovered sensation, has a sharp mind again, and is speaking normally.

I am so thankful for God's provision, for his protection, for his response, and most importantly, for being greater than the things that can keep me up at night. I prayed, and I got my miracle. My dad is alive thanks by the pure grace of God guiding coincidence, surgical hands, and straight-up divine intervention. I don't have enough words to express thankfulness to the God I serve.