We experienced a real miracle in our family. But sometimes,
you have to wait a lot of years before you also see God’s grace at work in your
life. To give you the full picture of that grace, I have to toot my husband’s
horn a little.
My handsome half has perfect eyes. At least he did until age
crept up on him! The fact he had 20/15 vision actually made them better than
perfect. If there was ever any doubt in my mind, when we stood at the rim of
Waimea Canyon and he talked about the goats at the bottom that I could only see
with binoculars proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt! But there is no reason that he should still be
able to see, let alone see so perfectly.
When we were first married, he began having episodes that
caused his eyes to become blood red and very painful. He’d visit the doctor
only to be told that there was nothing wrong. The episodes were random and unpredictable,
and went on for years, until quite by accident he was finally diagnosed.
We went, as a family, to get our eyes examined and the
optometrist took one look at my husbands’ eyes and immediately called the
ophthalmologist to take a look. He was whisked away to the surgery suite to be
more thoroughly examined, and we were informed that he had been having acute
glaucoma attacks for a decade or more and needed emergency surgery. From our
description of the episodes he had experienced, the Dr. had no explanation as
to why he could still see. Experience told him that my husband should have been
blind.
So as he was strapped in and readied for laser blasts to his
eye, our little girls, who were about 3 and 5 at the time, sat down with me in
the small waiting area to pray for daddy’s eyes. All went well, and he
actually went back to work the next day. Another appointment was scheduled for
a month or so later for his other eye.
The procedure was performed in the same way, but with a very
different result. This time around, it actually threw him into an acute attack
and the pressure in his eye skyrocketed. Once again, our little girls and I sat
in the waiting area and prayed for daddy’s eyes. Hours passed while the Dr. did
everything he could think of. The office closed and we weren't gaining any
ground.
Finally, long after everyone else had gone home, Dr. Smith
(really, that’s his name!) sat us down and told us there was only one more
thing he could try, but if it didn't work we would be going over to the
hospital for conventional surgery. So as the girls prayed, the boys worked and
then we waited.
The pressure finally came down. And, once again, my husband
went back to work the next day.
I’m sure you've already figured out the miracle. My handsome
half, against all odds, could still see perfectly when he should have been
blind. But to recognize God’s grace, you have to know some other things.
When we chose the optometrist to check our eyes, we looked
over a list of approved providers and made a random selection. He ‘just
happened’ to detect the pressure elevation, and there ‘just happened’ to be one
of the best ophthalmologist’s in the state in the office at the time we needed
him. This was in the 80’s and laser
surgery was fairly new, but this guy had lots of training and experience. God,
in His grace, had it all planned. There were no coincidences.
If the glaucoma had been diagnosed when it first began,
conventional surgery would have been performed, and my husband’s career would
have been over before it even began. You see, when he goes to work, his office
is at 40,000 feet. He’s a pilot, and that means the FAA is intimately involved
in all things health related. They had only approved laser surgery a very short
time before he had it, and have never approved conventional surgery for the
treatment of glaucoma. So by God’s grace, not only was his vision preserved,
but the diagnosis was delayed until such time that technology advanced, and it
could be treated in a manner that allowed him to continue to fly.
And because of God’s grace, my husband has logged over
21,000 flying hours while piloting countless prop driven airplanes and 12
different kinds of jets all over the world. He has 43 years at the controls
doing what he loves. In that time, he’s broken the sound barrier, flown
formation and performed acrobatics in high speed jets, done air refueling, worked
on a team that set a worlds record for flight in chemical warfare gear, and
flown a mission that coordinated research with the space shuttle. (Which,
interestingly enough, included lasers!)
But more important than all that, he got to watch his
children grow up. Those 2 little girls that prayed with me for daddy’s eyes in
that waiting room all those years ago are now beautiful young women who have
husbands and children of their own. And their dad has been able to watch their
‘littles’ grow too.
Each breath we take, every blink of the eye, down to the
smallest detail of our ability to function, is all sustained by God’s power,
and enabled by His grace. We have so much to be thankful for.
The Lord gives grace and
glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
Ps. 84:11
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