We were talking to our nephew Mark recently, and he told us this remarkable story. He was an avid diver and fisherman, and often combined his fishing trips with his job of beekeeper on some outlying islands. As with all of us, he got a bit careless with his diving one day and went further down than he should have. As a result of this, his back gave out on him and after a bit of time had gone by with no improvement, and in fact, only getting worse, he went to his doctor who referred him to a specialist. The specialist gave his verdict, “The only way we can overcome this problem is an operation,” he said, “You’ve developed a cyst on the bottom of your spine, and it needs to be removed.”
While he was waiting for this to happen he was reduced to needing a walking stick, to just get around, and couldn’t manage any of the lifting that was required in his job. Meantime, his mother had developed inoperable cancer and was starting to need nursing care day and night. His sister who was a trained nurse was able to undertake this task, but as the days went by, she needed extra help. He was so glad that he was able to be there to do the light jobs to help. Besides, it gave him valuable time with his mother while she could still communicate.
One day a member of Mark’s Bible Study took his children to the beach. While he was there, another guy about his own age, came wandering along with his little ones, and he sat down beside the first one. They struck up a conversation and discovered that they were both Christians. As the conversation flowed along, they found that they both knew Mark, even though they hadn’t known each other. The first guy shared how bad Mark’s back was getting with this cyst.
A short time later, the second guy who was a distant relative of Mark’s, was doing a job near Mark’s house, and he had this strong feeling that he should pop in and see how he was doing. Mark was home, and as they were chatting, he asked about Mark’s back and said, “How do you feel about me praying for your back?”
Mark agreed, and so he put his hand on Mark’s shoulder and simply told the Lord all about the problem. From that moment on, Mark’s pain subsided and he was able to help with lifting his mother during the night watches when she needed it. When the funeral service came, he was able to take his part in carrying the casket, and later on help lower her into the grave at the cemetery.
He had another appointment after the funeral service was over with the specialist, to finalise details for the operation, and another x-ray was taken to see how the cyst had progressed. “You know, I can’t see any sign of the cyst, it seems to have gone,” the specialist said as he turned back to Mark. So Mark told him what had happened with his friend praying for him, and how it had healed from then on.
“Well,” said the specialist, “I can’t argue against what I’ve just seen. It must be a miracle alright, and all I can say is, ‘Take up your bed and walk!’ There’s nothing there to operate on!!”
Mark went on to say what a valuable time it had been for him and other members of his family for him to have been able to help during his mothers last days on earth. “If I’d been fit and well,” he said, “I would have been going about my usual jobs and fishing and would have missed all that time during my mother’s last days that could never have been made up for. All I can say is how good God is! His ways are perfect, pain and all!”
This passage starts off with rule number one in the Christian life…”Commit your works to the Lord!” Can we commit everything that we are doing to the Lord day by day or are there things we do that we would be ashamed to have the Lord see?
