April 24th is a very special day!

First of all, let me wish everyone a happy Easter.  The Apostle Paul talks about how essential the resurrection of Christ is in 1 Corinthians 15.  He writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life, we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (verses 17-20).  Amen!  As the song puts it, “Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah!”

This particular Easter is even more special than usual (and this is one of my favorite holidays to begin with).  So I want to switch gears.  For today, I will give you the short version of how God, back in 1982, literally and miraculously saved my life!

When I was four months old, I developed what was diagnosed as “Infantile Spasms.”  This really just means that, as an infant, I was having multiple seizures.  Of course, the goal is to minimize the amount of seizures.  So I was on a lot of different medicines to try to do just that.  It worked a little, but they never completely went away.

 

This season of life lasted for six months.  It was April 24th, 1982.  I was in the hospital again due to complications.  For some reason, I flat-lined for three full minutes.  But then God breathed life into me (I believe every breath is a gift from Him; see Job 33:4).  What’s more, I haven’t had a seizure of any kind since that brush with death!  Every April the 24th, I stop and thank God for His miraculous touch.  Without Him, I would not be here today.

I want to be sensitive to those of you who may be dealing with a trying physical issue of some kind.  You read my story, and you are thinking, “Well, good for you, but what about me?  Why did God heal you and not me?”  My answer is I don’t have any idea.  I have a friend who deals with Grand Maul seizures, and I confess that I sometimes wonder why God healed me, but not her.

I’m reminded of the account of Jesus healing a blind man in John 9.  Have you ever thought about how there were other blind men that Jesus didn’t heal?  I’m using my imagination here, but perhaps some of this man’s best friends remained blind, while he could now see.  I can picture some of his blind friends coming to him in anger and asking him, “Why did this guy restore your sight and not mine?”  I think the blind man (who did become a believer, see John 9:35-38) would have answered with something like this, “God is the one who decides such matters.  I’m sad that you are still blind, but I can’t let that stop me from sharing with others what God has done for me.”

Kevin Bauer