What would you call this?

Question

A few years ago my father-in-law had a heart attack. The damage to his heart was so severe that the specialist told my ex that if he recovered, he wouldn’t be able to lift his hand to comb his own hair. Heart tissue can’t recover. It forms a scar and a heart so severely damaged can never function normally again.

We assumed the doctor was trying to prepare us for his father’s death and accepted it. He couldn’t breathe for himself and was connected to life supporting machines and monitors. We didn’t pray for recovery, just that God’s will be done.

I was sitting with him that night, as we took turns to stay by his side, when I noticed the doctor coming in to check the monitors, walking out, and coming back to check again, as if he couldn’t believe his eyes. Even I could see that his fast, uneven heartbeat was stabilizing.

A day or two later he was so much better that they could take him off the machines. He recovered fully and could take up a fitness program for heart patients. My father-in-law loved God. He simply said that God had taken his hand.

A team of highly-skilled doctors was involved. They didn’t misdiagnose, as my one friend suggested. They all agreed that what had happened was medically impossible. One joked that they were going to exhibit him in a glass cubicle at the hospital as an example of a miracle.

Do you believe that miracles still happen? Have you had a similar experience?

To Mo: I'm so sorry to hear about your father. My father-in-law finally died of leukemia, about ten years later. By telling my story I didn't mean to say that people will never suffer or die because God can do miracles, just that God lives, that he does miracles. I don't know why he allows people to suffer, but I do know this: when you suffer he is there to hold you...

Buttrfly: Nobody was using any form of 'mind power'. We didn't expect a miracle at all, weren't even praying for it, as I explained. We were waiting for him to die.

Answer 1

Faith heals people beyond any medical or scientific understanding. Some may refer to it as miracles, I tend to think of it as the result of faith. Pleading with God is never the answer, the answer is believing that God has the situation under control. God's guiding hand is always there. Our willingness to accept God's will, our faith in God - that will bring us 'miracles' time and time again - without fail.
One further note - "Heart tissue can’t recover" - is not the truth, the truth is doctors don't have a 'proven scientific method' to recover heart tissue. Just like any 'damaged equipment' you need to consult the manufacturer.

Answer 2

I'll give you 2 examples here. The 1st was well before I was born. My father was in a vicious car wreck in 1969 that resulted in serious brain damage. Back then, doctors said he wouldn't live very long. He slowly improved and eventually learned to walk, talk, read & write all over again. Everything wasn't perfect of course, he has epilepsy amongst other things and he was declared 100% disabled. However, it's now 2007 and he's still here and has raised a son after he wasn't supposed to live more than a handful of years according to those doctors. Easily a nominee for some type of miracle. After all he's been through, you never hear him whine or complain either. Definitely one of the better stories I've seen in my days.

Now for the darker story. My mother's sister, my aunt of course, goes to the hospital for the very simple procedure of getting her tubes tied. All goes well and she's sent home. A day or two later my mother gets a call from another sister and hears that she's back in the hospital with complications from that procedure. She was one of those rare cases where something goes wrong and she died. I bring this moment up to balance the earlier story about my dad because it's a valid point when discussing a god's work. Is it only a miracle of God in the amazing, rare cases that a life is saved. Then just human error or a horrible accident when an extremely rare death occurs in someone who is completely healthy otherwise? Or was it just her time? It's tougher to accept it so happily when the outcome is negative.

Answer 3

I am happy abut that, that was a miracle.
I was a young boy staying with my mom, then she got ill and was having serious complications, she was sent home to may be pass on at home. One day, she was alone and in great pain, she expected to die at any moment, so she went and let the door loose so that we don't find trouble breaking in and finding her body still.
Her three work mates at the same time felt that they should pay her a visit and pray with her, they arrived and walked in and sat by her side. They made simple healing prayers, just asking God to heal her, and it happened instantly.
I was also away when I got report that my dad was dieing after developing complications with hi heart. I cried to God as I believed all hope hanged with him, I was broke at the time, so 2 months later, I left college and met him strong and doing well. He is alive today and testifies of miracles.

Answer 4

I think that was a great story. I see my Father now at 130 lbs, he used to weigh 240 and run construction projects. I am watching him suffer an agonizing and humiliating , slow death. If there is this so called miracle God, why does he let people like my Father suffer such an ugly and painful journey to the grave?

Answer 5

I had a leg injury once that was supposed to take 4 weeks before I could walk again, yet it took me 3 days, mostly down to determination and my own hard work. Nobody prayed for me.

Either I created my own miracle of the doctor was wrong. There is no other rational explanation.

Incidentally, in cases like the one you describe, there IS a tendency for the doctors to exaggerate - not so much to prepare you for the worst but because nobody sues for a 'bad' prognosis that turns out wrong with a happy ending.

Answer 6

I don't see the miracle here. i see a doctor who was probably trying to prepare your family for the worst, but still hoping that your father-in-law would make a recovery. I see the chance of a misdiagnosis, despite what you might think. I also see the human bodies incredible ability to be killed by the simplest, stupidest things, and yet to survive massive trauma at other times.

I also see some people who, for whatever reason, seem to have a bizarre need to believe in a deity, and so have convinced themselves that what happened "must" have been due to intervention on the part of that deity.

Ask yourself this. Why would a god intervene to save the life of an older man, but not prevent disease, famine and war that wipes out millions of his supposed worshippers every year? If you can come up with a reason, then ask yourself whether you really want to worship such a capricious, unjust, amoral entity.

Answer 7

Yes miracle still happens, I know a man that was to have surgery to correct many broken bones, & during the night he prayed, & about 2:00AM he said he felt all his bones go back into place, They came to take him to surgery the next morning & he told the doctor, I don't need surgery, God healed me during the night, of course, many doctors is not for devine healing, so this doctor thought he would prove this man testimony as false & the doctor order another CT scan & to his surprise, Every bones was back in place, He went home that day from the hospital.

Answer 8

Yes, I do believe in miracles. I've seen at least one person change nearly every part of life, attitudes, behaviors and belief system almost in a heartbeat. The one person I'm thinking most about has remained changed for years, so this was not a temporary or emotional reaction to the Word. God's hand is visible in this life and in mine.

Answer 9

I was teaching a young boy to dfrive...A truck Hit us so hard the car was written off the entire back was crushed., MY wife sobbed when she saw the wreck... The student and I walked away.. The students father is a missionary...If thats not Gods will what is it ??

Answer 10

That's a miracle, alright. Yes, I have seen several similar events:
The pastor's wife at the church that I attended as a child was diagnosed with MS. One morning, she came RUNNING into church shouting that she had been healed. That was almost twenty years ago. Her MS is still gone.
A lady at the church I attended as a teenager had a rare heart defect. The doctors gave her six months to a year to live. The entire church congregation began praying for her, because she had three young children, and it wouldn't be fair to them to lose their mother. She was healed, and the doctors still don't know what happened.
I saw a boy hit by a car outside our apartment complex two years ago. It was BAD. When my husband went downstairs to see what he could do, he said that the boy was not breathing. I prayed, as I watched in horror, that the boy would be okay. Moments later, he sat up, wondering why his mother was crying. It turned out that he did not have a single scratch, though the car had hit him hard enough that he flew over it, and landed almost fifteen feet behind it.

Yes, miracles DO still happen.