You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The power of prayer.
The woman tells me that she had prayed that something good would happen.
If any family needs a little divine intervention it is this family.
The woman tells me that her husband lost his job essentially cutting their income in half. She tells me that the family’s storage facility with all their Christmas items and irreplaceable kid’s photos was auctioned off. She tells me that medical bills are going through the roof.
Oh and did I forget to tell you that her husband was walking across the street when he we was mowed down by a speeding car.
His left arm went through the windshield like a javelin. The jagged glass severed skin and tendons and bone. When witnesses got to the man, he was unconscious, bleeding profusely.
As the witness tied a tourniquet around the man’s arm, they knew he was going to lose his arm
The family has been riding a roller coaster full of snapping angry sea turtles.
When the wife says she has prayed for something wonderful, you can bet she has prayed like a Tibetan Monk welcoming the sun rise at the top of the world.
The power of prayer.
The phone rings and she answers it.
WOW.
It’s a producer at the nationally syndicated show the Doctors.
They want to tell the Miracle Man’s story on national TV.
I’ve told you about this family before.
Terrible accident. Arm practically severed in the street. Coma, respirator, fighting for life.
The Miracle Man is a fighter, and he wills himself to wake up at Vanderbilt Medical Center.
He had to wake up he tells me. He needs to see his grand children again. He needs to be by the side of his bride of 18 years again.
I met him shortly after the accident.
He was a mess. Black and blue and cuts everywhere. His wound was fresh, a stump bandaged with a smiley face drawn by children in sharpie.
His disposition was powerful and positive. Even though he was laying there in pain, without an arm, he was not going to wallow in the mire. He looked at a life with one arm as a gift, a chance to renew, to rekindle, to relearn.
“We want to tell your story on our segment called House Calls,” The producer tells the wife.
Lord be praised. The power of Prayer.
This story will bring national attention to an American family so full of love and hope and promise, it will renew hope in every American TV viewer who hears their story.
God does listen, he does watch, he does care.
So the Vanderbilt Doctor turned TV star visits with the Miracle family in their modest, clean home.
The walls are filled with pictures of family and children. There are slogans like Love and Family and Smile hanging everywhere, even painted neatly onto the stucco.
The TV host will later say these powerful expressions and the portraits reassured him that this family was strong and deserving of the gift he was about to bestow upon them.
The doctor turned TV star gave the couple a 4 night, 5 day stay at a resort in the Smoky mountains.
The couple, married 18 years, has never had a honeymoon.
They were so appreciative. She squeezed his only hand with a smile on her adoring face.
Before they can even say thank you, the host of the show says, “but there’s more.”
Suddenly a smiling man with a black bag enters the room.
“He is from the Hanger Institute and he is going to fit you for a state of the art electronic arm,” the doctor turned TV host says.
The couple all ready emotional from a Smoky Mountain get-a-way, begins to break down. Their lips quiver. Their eyes well with tears. They hold one another not sure how to respond.
It’s as if God has heard their prayer and delivered them his gift with a big bow.
Before you know it, the institute man is measuring the Miracle Man’s stump with a laser. He is mapping every nook and cranny of scar tissue so that the state of the art prosthesis will fit perfectly.
I see a close up of the mechanism. It is straight out of science fiction. It is a realistic looking hand with fingers that operate so realistically, it’s almost eerie.
“It even has finger nails,” the wife will tell me.
“The power of prayer. The power of prayer,” she will say over and over again.
She use to call her husband the The Miracle Man. He’s still that. But now she also calls him the Bionic Man.
He laughs, telling me that this gift is the greatest thing he has ever received. He tells me that he will get the arm by Christmas. He tells me that it will allow him to complete his dream, of once again gripping a fishing pole and taking his grand kids to their favorite honey hole.
He smiles, wiping a tear from his eye.
“They say grand dad, can you fix my bike. You can fix anything.”
His words trail off.
With this new bionic arm, he knows that his role as Grand Daddy Mr. Fix It is securely in tact.
The power of prayer.
Sometimes you need to lose an arm to realize how to hold on to life.
The power of prayer. It can fill a void with a spirit that makes losing an arm seem like a gift.
Life’s Crazy™