"Christians In Touch" -- Geoff's Jottings Archive

God's Healing Hand

July 2003

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. 1 Samuel 1:27. (NIV)

I have a wonderful son called Matthew, I am very proud of him and of course I love him dearly. Matthew is 21 now but when he was a child he had problems. For some time Matthew had problems with his feet, especially at night when he went to bed, very often I would walk into his bedroom to find him with his feet pressed onto the wall from the bottom of his bed, it was the way in which he sought relief. Sometimes he would cry with the pain. I would often pray that the Lord would take away the pain and cure him of this problem. I had taken Matthew to the doctor who could find nothing wrong, he even saw a specialist with the same result. It was obvious that there was something wrong. One night Matthew was in tears as his feet caused so much pain. I clasped his feet in my hands and cried out to the Lord and immediately the pain left Matthew and from that day forward he never suffered from that problem.

Some weeks later I was in the garden and Matthew was playing nearby with our daughter Jenny and her friend from next door. Jenny gave a shout and as I turned round I saw that Matthew had collapsed, he had lost all feeling in his legs, he could not stand, his legs would just give way. At this time I had a dog of a motor, a clapped out 22 year old Volvo. I got Matthew into the car and went round to my friend John; we were members of the same church. We got Matthew into Johns car and we went off to the hospital. John knew all the short cuts and we drove over the Black Mountains. As we drove we prayed and as we prayed Matthews condition worsened, he had now lost all feeling in his arms. All sorts of things were running through my mind. Would he end up as a vegetable, was he paralyzed? We got him into hospital where he was seen immediately, sometime later the doctor came up to me and said he did not know what the problem was. It was an Easter weekend and we were told that we could either leave him in hospital under observation or take him home as the specialist would not be back at the hospital for several days. I said we would take Matthew home. When we got home later that morning John and I once again prayed for Matthew. By mid-afternoon Matthew was running round the garden as if nothing had happened. Praise the Lord.

They say it never rains unless it pours. I had a lovely Jack Russell called Becky, we had her from a little puppy 12 years before and she was very much a part of the family. Late that very same afternoon Becky chased a cat, she got so carried away that she failed to see the wall in front of her and crashed into it, although a bit dazed she seemed okay and was acting just as she normally did. It must have been several minutes later that I went into the house to do something and Becky was sitting by my desk, she did not look right, as I got closer I noticed that there was blood on her side and blood was dripping from her nose. I picked her up and took her into the kitchen where the light was better, there was blood everywhere, she had a deep cut on her side and she had an internal injury as the blood was pouring out of her nose. I cried out to God for help. I grabbed the first aid kit and handfuls of kitchen roll, I pressed the kitchen roll to her side and held her little head up to stem the flow from her nose. I must have been looking towards heaven as I prayed again, when I looked down there was no more blood coming out of her nose and when I took the kitchen roll away there was no sign of a cut on her side. Becky died last year aged 18. She had a long and happy life, we loved her dearly and she loved us.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
Worship the LORD with gladness;
Come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;
Give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100 (NIV)

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