It is just so amazing how far God has brought us in the past several weeks! It is difficult to believe that we have gone through so many emotional ups and downs! It has seemed like two years to me, but when you step back and look at it in context, it really is a very short period in a lifetime. There are soap operas that have run for generations, and yet you can start watching any day and get caught right up with what has been going on endlessly. Same plot, different players.

It seems to me that our lives are much like that. Same plots, different players. Read the bible, or other historical reference, and you will see the same storylines over and over. The difference in some stories is the way different people played the role, which affected the ending. Some endings are good, and some aren’t.

Like an actor, we have been given the gift of improvisation in playing the role of our life. You can play your role however you want to, and how you play your part will determine the results. You have guidelines to follow, but you have certain latitude to be creative, too. In your role you have to make decisions every moment about how we are going to play the role of your life.

I believe that God has a master plan for each of us, and that The Plan is like a script for a play. The Director knows, generally, how the play is going to end, but is willing to allow the actors the latitude to play the character the way they “feel” it. The way an actor interprets a role depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is the background of experience that makes up much of that person’s perspective. Our actions also determine how we might influence others who observe how we conduct ourselves in solving challenges.

Lea has been awake now for only a few days, but is already enchanting the medical team here at the hospital with the way she approaches challenges. Her bubbly personality is helping her overcome the normal reactions of rejection, dejection, depression and anger that occur following a major surgery. She is hearing compliments on how good she looks so often that she is beginning to wonder just how bad she looked! J

She is beginning to get an inkling of what has transpired as she hears bits and pieces of conversation, and of course, I tell her the truth about anything she asks about. I have been telling her that her incision is not nearly as large as the bandage on her abdomen, which is true, but she got a sense of the wound size as the bandage was being changed, and she could tell that it is quite large.

She had a normal reaction of dejection, realizing that she will have a large scar. Unfortunately, not even the skin graft will hide the scar cosmetically, although it will reduce the discoloration. We had a conversation about the incision shortly after that bandage change, in which I told her that it just didn’t make any difference to me; I’m going to take her home anyway! She continues working on the ventilator . . . a work effort she started at 5:45 a.m. Wednesday, and has only required one 3-hour break! She is doing very, very well!

I am grateful to God for letting me have her back, and I am willing to accept whatever challenges the body gives us, just to get to be with that beautiful soul inside it for an additional period. What Lea has been through, and what she will have to humbly accept as permanent changes to her body, will continue to be sources of inspiration for many of us as, well as a testimony to the miracle of prayer. We will be very interested to see how her own testimony of her trial, which is really just now starting, begins to form and take shape.

We don’t always know how other lives are being affected by the results of our prayers, although in Lea’s case we have received many notes and comments. Mysteriously, perhaps, sometimes, negative results impact a large number of people in a positive manner. Praise God that, sometimes, as in Lea’s case, positive results can also impact a large number of people in a positive manner!

I consider my blessings to be innumerable and uncountable. Each time I look into Lea’s beautiful blue eyes, now, I see God smiling out at me, and I immediately feel humbled, and pray a sometimes silent, “Thank you!” I know that she isn’t completely healed yet, and that she could be taken away at any moment. But, I have felt such joy at her return, and experienced such an overwhelming love for our Father as a result of the walk we have taken together in the last few weeks, I know that He is sending us out from here to continue His mission.

I don’t know where we will go, or what we will do. I just know that He has prepared us to witness for the power of prayer, miraculous healing in His time, how to be open to learning the lessons He is teaching us, and how He can work miracles in so many lives through reaching into the compassion of believers and non-believers alike, who get caught up in the day-to- Day drama of a critical illness, and bring them a little closer to Him as a result.

Thank you for being one of those touched by Lea’s dilemma, and for your love and compassion during this journey. We couldn’t have made it without your prayers. Thank you for your well wishes now, they are truly treasured.