Three years ago, I woke up to a new kind of healing.
When I found out my son was deaf, I grieved.
I grieved the loss of what I thought life was going to look like for my boy.
People I knew, called and wrote saying they were praying for healing for him.
They were praying for God to restore hearing to his deaf ears.
In the midst of my desire for restoration, was a stronger desire to embrace the boy God made in Cole. The one I was called to raise...
Only once could I stop to ask God to change him.
Because I knew He could...I wanted Him to know, I believed.
But even as I uttered the words, I couldn't shake the indescribable feeling
that He wouldn't do it that way...not this time.
I knew He could, and for some He has.
There are many stories in the Bible and even in our modern day of God healing the sick in miraculous ways.
But this time, I heard God say to my grieving heart...
"He's not sick...only made differently, for my glory.
I know who I've made. Trust me."
In that moment, I moved from wanting to fix a problem, to praying that God would open my eyes, ears and heart to see, hear and experience HIS purpose, plan and design for my boy.
It was in that time that we learned about cochlear implants.
And that Cole was a perfect candidate for them.
I knew then...right after that last and final hearing test where His God-given, natural hearing was tested for the last time...Cole would receive his healing.
A unique, but perfect way...God's way.
3 years later, I wake up with my boy each morning, and watch him put his new "ears" on just as easy as you or I put on our shirt, shorts or shoes. They are just part of him.
Cole's cochlear implants are to Cole what
the stones of remembrance were to the Israelites.
Joshua 4:20-22
And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’”
And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’”
The stones helped the Israelites remember that God had performed a miracle in their life.
They helped them remember...that God remembered them.
Cole's CI's serve as a reminder to us as well.
God knew of his deafness, knew how HE had made him, and made a way to his healing.
He was healed in a way and at a TIME when we can never take credit for any effort on our part being the reason he can hear.
It was because of the kindness and grace of our God that Cole now stops, eyes lighting up in JOY when he hears his sister calling him from her crib upstairs...or that he runs at the first sound of his brother knocking on the door as he comes home from school.
That is God's grace. That is his healing.
To GOD be the glory, then, NOW and forevermore.
This song means something new to me now.
I used to think it meant that if we believed, God would take away our ailments.
Sometimes he does, and sometimes He doesn't.
But whatever He does, He brings purpose and hope to the lost and hopeless.
True healing comes in knowing the Healer.
Yes, Jesus.
I DO believe that You're my Healer.
May many more know YOUR name through your miraculous, healing work in the life of Cole.
May many more know YOU as Healer, today as they simply....believe.
You are enough for me.
