An Eerie Tie-in with Last Week's Entry

Last week, I began my entry by posing a question we have all asked: Are things ever going to get better?  Another way to phrase that question would be thus: Can things get any worse?

Ask, and ye shall receive.

Friday night, my son was admitted to the local hospital with bronchialitis, which could be described as “Yucky Lung Crud.”  Takes after his old man in that regard.  I was an extremely sickly kid growing up.  I had pneumonia fourteen times by the age of eleven (I wrote out those numbers so you would know I didn’t just accidentally hit a digit by mistake).  Since that time I have dealt with the dreaded hereditary curse of asthma.  Oh, well.  That’s life.

The problem, though, was this: I’ve never been on the parental side of an illness like this.  I have a greater appreciation for what my own parents and grandparents experienced when I was the one laying on the bed, wheezing and coughing, IVs and oxygen tubes running everywhere.

Needless to say, neither side is pleasant, especially the view from way up here in the parental section.

Throughout his hospital stay, which lasted from very early Saturday morning until Tuesday afternoon, I was impressed by two things, which I would like to share with you.

First, I never quite understood what total helplessness was.  Sure, intellectually speaking I knew, but until you see your own child struggling to breathe, laying still when he usually is bouncing off the walls, until you’re there hearing the coughs and wheezes above the whine of an oxygen tent, knowing exactly what he feels like, yet being unable to do a single thing to make it better, you don’t fully comprehend helplessness.

It is in those totally helpless times that a person’s faith is put to the test.  At that moment, I had to put into practice all that I had preached about trusting the Lord.  I knew He would see us through, and that’s exactly what He did.  But it was still difficult.

Second, I was impressed by the sheer number of people, especially children, who came through the hospital with illnesses of their own.  How many of them relied on the Lord to see them through?  Did they have the peace of knowing everything would be okay, no matter what?  I’m sure some of them did and others did not.  But from personal experience, I can say that I wouldn’t want to go through anything, good or bad, without Him to lift me up and show what “sufficient grace” really is.

Doctors say that, while my son is getting better, we should prepare for this pattern repeating itself.  It’s nothing new to me.  I wish David didn’t have to go through what I did, and am praying that he doesn’t.  But either way, I look forward to teaching him, to showing him, that the Lord will always be there when we need Him most.

Is He there for you?

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