Without a shadow of a doubt…
Will, Presley, Ashley, Mama Jane, and Hannah
It was a lazy Saturday morning.
Both kids were home under the roof for the first time in a while, so this momma was happy.
My daughter, Presley, had plans to spend the day at the lake with her boyfriends family, and my son, Joseph, was headed to Atlanta to stay the night with some of his old high school friends.
Usually, I don’t write in my prayer journal on Saturdays because we often have a full plate of things to do, errands to run, or just hanging out together as a family.
This particular Saturday, I had time to sit and write. My daughter had left early to leave for the lake, and my son was getting ready to leave.
The words that I wrote were…
Prayers:
-Our health to be excellent! By Your stripes, we are healed! Praise You, Jesus!
-No cancer, no disease, no accidents, no tragedies, no broken bones, no mental disorders.
-Lord, please give us long lives to spread Your Word and love! Make our years long and prosperous! Remove fear, anxiety, worry!
-Speak, Lord, Your servant is listening….
Little did I know as I wrote down these prayers that God was living out the scripture found in Romans 8:26-27…
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will.
As I took a walk soon after spending my morning with Jesus, I decided to start memorizing Psalm 91 again. I had the words etched on my heart from years ago, but I had not practiced them in a while.
Each step I took on that walk, I was regurgitating the words of that Psalm.
Psalm 91 is also known as the “Protection Psalm”.
The kids and I had put it to memory years ago, when they were very young.
The rest of my day was spent running errands and doing some catching up on house work.
My phone rang around 3:00 pm and I felt the breath leave my body for a moment…
My daughter had been in an accident on the lake, they were taking her to the closest hospital.
She was able to talk on the phone to me, so I knew she was okay, but I had no idea the extent of the injuries.
We traveled over an hour to the hospital closest to the lake.
Soon after arriving they transported her by ambulance back to Athens to see a neurosurgeon.
Those moments are kind of blurry looking back on…I feel like God had me and my husband in a protective bubble so to speak..
I remember being unusually (for me) calm.
Here is what I do remember…
When I first laid eyes on her she was swallowed up by a neck brace twice or maybe three times the size she needed.
She looked so young…so innocent…so precious.
Soon after getting to see her and making sure she was talking and coherent, I took a moment to go to the bathroom.
I needed to just breathe for a moment.
As I was in the bathroom, I heard a voice in my heart…not audible, at least I don’t think it was. It may as well have been, because I heard it so clearly…
“She will not even smell like smoke…”
Those are the words I heard.
I immediately knew they were from the book of Daniel.
When Daniel and his two friends were thrown into the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar, the king watched.
At the kings amazement, he suddenly saw not three men, but FOUR men in the fire.
He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” Daniel 3:25
Not only that, listen to what happened next…
So Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego came out of the fire, and the satraps, prefects, governors and royal advisers crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies, nor was a hair of their heads singed; their robes were not scorched, and there was no smell of fire on them.
If I had not known God’s Word or been unfamiliar with the book of Daniel, I would have had no idea what those words meant that day they were spoken to me.
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:1
I have held onto those words…when the doctors spoke scary things and I wanted to run and shut my ears and hide…
When my daughter was wincing in pain throughout the night…
When we waited and waited and waited for the neurosurgeon to meet with us…
When he finally met us in person to talk it all through…
I have held onto God’s Words. I have clutched them like the bleeding lady must have clutched the hem of Jesus’ garment that day when she needed healing.
The neurosurgeon on that very first night, put his hand on my daughter and said, “you are a very blessed girl.”
The doctor decided to not do surgery, praise Jesus. He told us that normally he would have done one immediately but due to her age—20 years old— he did not want to.
Instead, our beautiful girl will wear a neck brace for 8-12 weeks. As long as all is healing up well, no surgery will be needed.
She will not even smell like smoke…
I am clinging to these words.
She has a road ahead of her.
Some days have been difficult .
She has questions and she has worry and fear at times…
But she knows without a shadow of a doubt…
She is a miracle.
What could have been so much worse, according to every single doctor and nurse, has become…our hope.
We have seen God in every detail of this journey. I had to start keeping notes on my phone of all of the threads of God that have been weaved together on this journey.
I am still seeing them.
It has been 11 days since that day…
All I can say to God is this…
“I just can’t get over it, Jesus. I just cannot get over it.”
He is Faithful.
He Prepares.
He speaks.
I am asking my faithful friends and family here on this space to please pray for our Presley Jane.
Please pray for a complete and immaculate healing and recovery.
God has been speaking to her so intimately through this journey as well….and that will be her story to share one day.
Please also pray for the enemy to flee when fear, anxiety and worry try to entice us down that path…
The Joy of the Lord is our Strength. Nehemiah 8:10
The Lord is our Shepherd, He is all we need. Psalm 23:1
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28
Thank you for listening to and reading our story.
It is healing to write it out.
I want to tell everyone in the world about His Faithfulness.
I cannot stop
He is in every detail of our lives…every one.
Take notice today. Ask Him to open your eyes…
You will never want them closed again.
praising His Holy Name,
jill
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