Dearest Doves!Reading Jim’s touching story about the man that was brought back from the dead made me want to share just a couple of MANY stories of our precious Lord’s miraculous work in mine and Richard’s lives. There isn’t enough space to tell them all, because His touches and His miracles are just as numerous today as they were in the past!!!
The first story I will share is the story about why I quit driving for 20+ years. In 1981, my family (I was married to my ex at the time) had gone to his parent’s lake house for the weekend (Labor Day weekend), and since my youngest, Chris, was only 3 months old at the time, he had stayed with my Mom. Shelly (my daughter who was 7 at the time) and I went to Mama’s to pick Chris up. I placed him in his carrier (we didn’t have a carseat for him) facing the front seat, then ran the seat belt across it and snapped it into place. For some odd reason, Shelly and I hadn’t buckled up, and we turned onto a busy road right off my parent’s road. Chris began fussing, so I glanced down and patted his chest to ease him. My right tires hit some loose gravel, I panicked and hit the accelerator instead of the brake. I went into a 6’ ditch, hit the culvert, breaking off a piece of it, flew into the street, and began spinning in circles between the oncoming traffic, heading for a 6’ ditch across the street. There was a HUGE oak tree right on the other side of the ditch. I literally saw my life flash before my eyes as we spun across the street. When I saw we were going to land in the ditch and hit the oak tree, I let go of the steering wheel, lay down over Chris, and tried to reach Shelly’s arm. Upon impact, the steering wheel met the seat where I had just moved from! My chest would have been crushed!!! My head went about 7” into the windshield, but it didn’t knock me out, give me a headache, or anything! Shelly had one tiny bruise on her arm, and Chris had some superficial wounds on his forehead from the flying glass… that was ALL that happened to us!!! At the time, I was only 27 years old, and not walking in the Spirit, though I’d always been a believer from the time I could remember! I was SO frightened when I realized what COULD and SHOULD have happened, that I didn’t drive except when absolutely necessary for 27 years!!! I JUST began to drive when Richard returned from the hospital on January 11th, when the doctor told him if he got into an accident and his chest were to hit the steering wheel, it would kill him! I went from driving ZERO hours/day to driving THREE hours/day, M-F!!! The Lord TOTALLY removed my fear OVERNIGHT!!! Richard used to spend 6 hours/day in the car, ferrying my chicken self to/from work!!! What a travesty!!! All praise be to the Almighty!!!
The second story occurred in 1993. Shelly was 20 years old, was married to her first husband, who was absolutely a HORRID man, and they had a baby, Nicole. Nicole was perfectly healthy (“10” on a scale of 1-10) when she was born. Then a week later she was dead! The hospital killed her by puncturing her throat when they put in a breathing tube. When they thought they were filling her lungs with oxygen, they were actually filling her stomach with oxygen!!! Here is a poem I wrote in memory of Nicole. This poem was the cleansing ointment of the Holy Spirit that helped me get over my 12 years of grief!
http://his-forever.com/through_the_garden_sprayed_with_dew.htm
The night before Nicole’s death, she was hooked up to myriads of tubes, and blood was trickling from her mouth and nose. The hospital chaplain had just baptized her, and left, and me, Kirby (my ex), and others that were there with Shelly & Fred and the baby, decided to take a break. We left Shelly and Fred at the baby’s bed, and were all walking down the brightly lit hallway that leads outside. All us couples were holding hands with our spouses, heads lowered in sadness, no one talking. Suddenly, about 3’ from the front door of the hospital, I was stopped in my tracks by an invisible body, whose arms PHYSICALLY went around me, and I lay my head upon his chest!!! It was the warmest hug I have ever received in my LIFE! It lasted approximately a minute. During that minute, I saw nothing that was going on around me, nor did I hear anything. All I felt was the arms encircling me, and the extreme peace and comfort that hug brought to me! As soon as the arms left me, I felt like 25 lbs. had been lifted from my heavy heart, and I actually began laughing out loud and joking around with Kirby! Everyone else did the same, even though most of those who were present were not Christians!!! It was awesome!!! We went and sat on the benches, which were outside to the left of the hallway, those of us who were smokers, smoking a cigarette and talking up a storm!!! About 5 minutes later, I looked into that hallway, and here came Shelly & Fred, holding hands, heads down, not talking. All of a sudden, Shelly stopped in the middle of that hallway for about a minute!!! Then SHE and Fred began laughing, joking, and smiling!!! Shelly came and sat on the bench facing me. She said, “Mom, you are not going to believe what just happened to me! I just receive the biggest, warmest hug I have ever felt, by an invisible person, whom I truly believe was Jesus!” Imagine her shock when I related the exact same story to HER!!! That hug is what got us through the death of Nicole the next day, and the subsequent funeral and burial!!! The next year, Shelly became pregnant again, but had a miscarriage when she was 3 months pregnant, and has never been able to get pregnant again. She’s married to a wonderful man (almost 6 years now), who has total custody of his two sons, now 10 and 11 years old. They love her like a mother, and she loves them as her sons, but it’s not the same as having her own baby. If she’s not blessed with another child here, she will still have two children in eternity, and we are looking SO forward to enjoying their company for all eternity!
Then there’s my precious soulmate/husband, Richard, whom I’ve been blessed with being married to for 11 years now!!! During that 11-year period, we have been brought through the fire every single year!!! Richard has had 4 major heart attacks, 13 angioplasties/stents, 3 open-heart surgeries, literally broke his neck, had a stationery mass the size of a golf ball behind his breastplate (which miraculously disappeared by the next afternoon when the surgeons went to perform a biopsy on it!!!)… all miraculously healed!!! ALL of his doctors and nurses over these years have been totally shocked and befuddled about how he lived through it all… all of the glory and honor given directly to our precious Lord!!! What a witness and testimony!!! I literally cannot WAIT to stand before His throne, crawl up into His lap, throw my arms around His neck, and tell Him thank you for everything He’s done in our lives!!!
I pray these stories have blessed you, as they have us over the years!!!
Love you all in Him!
Peggy
www.his-forever.com