My Daughter at Death’s Door: I Witness a Miracle by Praying to God (2)
My Daughter’s Condition Worsens and I Sink Into Despair
At about 4 in the afternoon, my daughter suddenly began struggling to breathe and she was looking worse and worse. My husband quickly notified the doctor. When the doctor and a specialist rushed over, they said my daughter would soon stop breathing. They had to make an incision and open her airway immediately, they said, and use a respirator to help her breathe, otherwise she would die. I felt so nervous when I heard this, and I worried that, if she didn’t recover well after her airway had been opened, then she would have to have a breathing tube inserted for the rest of her life. In order for my daughter to have any hope of surviving, however, my husband and I agreed to the procedure. Over half an hour later, the procedure was over. The doctor said, “This is our last chance. If she can’t breathe with the respirator, then there is nothing else we can do for her.” My anxiety returned when the doctor said this, afraid that my daughter would have another turn for the worse. That day, my husband and I kept watch over our daughter and carefully observed her breathing, daring not to relax our vigilance even for a moment.
At about 11 p.m. that evening, our daughter’s breathing became more and more rapid. She opened her eyes and reached out her hand, motioning to me to give her paper and a pen. Then on the paper she wrote: “Mommy, I can’t catch my breath. I think I may die.” After writing this, her hand slid feebly down, and she fell into unconsciousness. We couldn’t wake her no matter how we tried, and my husband hurried to fetch the doctor. Crying, I kept calling to my daughter. After a short while, specialists from orthopedics, and from the E.N.T. and thoracic departments all came. They surrounded my daughter and examined her, and then went to an office to consult with each other. My husband went with them. I laid my head next to my daughter’s and I grieved. At that moment, I wished that it was me lying in that hospital bed, so that I didn’t have to see my daughter in such great suffering.
20 minutes later, my husband returned, and his eyes were red. Lifelessly, he said, “The doctors say our daughter won’t make it, and they say we should go home.” Seeing my husband feeling so weak and powerless, and then looking at my unconscious daughter, my heart was suddenly filled with a strong conviction: Our daughter will not die — God will save her! I then said strongly to my husband, “We can’t go home now!” Later on, the attending physician had a talk with me, and advised me, saying, “We’ve all consulted, and we really cannot think of any way to save her. Your daughter cannot be saved. You should go home!” Hearing the doctor say this, suddenly these words of God came to mind: “So long as you still have one breath, God will not let you die” (“Chapter 6” of Utterances of Christ in the Beginning). I believed that God possesses this kind of authority and power and He administers the fate of mankind, as well as our lives and deaths. It was up to God whether our daughter would live or die, and the doctor’s words did not matter. I believed that God would surely save our daughter. Therefore, no matter how the doctor advised me, I steadfastly replied, “We’re not yet at the very end. We cannot go home.” And I demanded that the doctors try to save her again. At my insistence, the doctor had no choice but to take up a sputum aspiration tube that was about 40 cm long, and he inserted it into my daughter’s airway through the incision. Using an electric machine, the doctor sucked sputum out four times and, unexpectedly, my daughter’s breathing eased, and she slowly opened her eyes. In joy, I gripped her hand and kept thanking God. But the doctor said, “In your daughter’s current state, although her breathing has eased, she won’t live past tonight. I think you should go home before that happens.” Upon saying this, he shook his head and left. I took no notice of what he’d said. Seeing my daughter breathing, my heart was filled with faith for God, and then I softly sang a couple of hymns to her, “Song of Loving God Without Regrets” and “With True Faith Comes Witness.” Listening to me sing, she fell quietly into sleep and she passed the night in peace.
Unexpectedly, the next morning at 7 a.m., my daughter’s breathing once again became rapid and she looked to be in a lot of pain and distress. She stretched out her hand, motioning that she wanted a pen and paper. Holding the pen, she wrote with difficulty: “Daddy, mommy, it’s hard to breathe. I feel I won’t pull through. I don’t think I’ll last past this morning.” Reading what she’d written, I felt a heartrending pain and despair once again filled my heart. I tightly gripped her hand and I kept calling on God in my heart: “O God! My daughter is in such pain and it seems that she really won’t make it. O God! I don’t know how I’m supposed to face what will happen next. I beg You to help me.” These words of God then came to my mind: “Since you believe in and follow God, you should offer everything to Him, and should not make personal choices or demands, and you should achieve the fulfillment of God’s desire. Since you were created, you should obey the Lord that created you, for you are inherently without dominion over yourself, and have no ability to control your own destiny. Since you are a person who believes in God, you should seek holiness and change” (“Success or Failure Depends on the Path That Man Walks”). As I contemplated God’s words, I came to understand that I was a created being and that I should stand in a created being’s place and submit to the Creator’s orchestrations and arrangements. I should not be making all kinds of demands on God to satisfy my own wild desires, for that was unreasonable behavior. Thinking back over the days since I’d learned of my daughter’s car accident, whenever I’d prayed to God I was always asking Him to save my daughter and not to let her die. I saw how deeply corrupted by Satan I was; I believed in God and followed God and yet I had no shred of reverence or obedience toward Him and had not stood in the right place for a created being. Instead, I had made unreasonable demands of God and had blindly asked God for His blessings and grace — I really was so arrogant, conceited, selfish and contemptible! God is the Creator and all things are in His hands. When someone is born and when they die has all been preordained by God long ago and He arranges it all. My daughter’s life was also in God’s hands, and no matter what God did, His good will was behind it. I should obey God’s sovereignty and arrangements and not make my own decisions — only this was the attitude and sense a created being should have. And so, I said a silent prayer to God and made a resolution: “O God! I wish truly to give my daughter to You. Whether You take her or You leave her, I will not complain. I wish only to obey Your sovereignty and arrangements and stand firm in my testimony to You.” After I’d prayed, I began to prepare for the worst. Once I’d gotten my feelings under control, I held my daughter’s hand and, holding back my tears, I said to her, “Lanlan, God gives us our lives. Whether we live or die, we must always submit to God’s orchestrations and arrangements. Although we haven’t believed in God for very long, compared with unbelievers, we are very fortunate. We haven’t come into this world in vain, because we have heard God’s voice and we know that there is one Creator in all the universe, and we know that we should worship God as living people. So no matter what happens in the end, we must always thank God and we absolutely must not blame Him. OK?” My daughter seemed to hear and understand what I was saying, and she nodded her head and blinked her eyes, and two lines of tears slid down from the corners of her eyes. Afterward, her breathing became more and more labored and she fell unconscious again. I watched my daughter as I sat feebly beside her, tears falling from my eyes.
When Things Looked Hopeless, God’s Love Did Not Leave Us
Just then, the attending physician came over and looked at the ventilator and electrocardiogram, then shined his small hand torch in my daughter’s eyes and pinched her arms and shook his head. In a cold voice, he said, “I told you your daughter would not survive the night. Now you see that she won’t survive! Her pupils are dilated, and her face is turning purple. There is no way to save her.” The doctor then turned and instructed a nurse to see what the situation was with my daughter’s infusion, and he told her to remove the tube if it was no longer dripping. Then he walked off without looking back. Hearing the doctor say this, my husband laid his head next to our daughter’s and cried in grief, and the other people in the ward wept tears of sympathy. Though I’d prepared my mind for this, hearing the doctor say those words caused me great pain and at once I felt like my heart had been hollowed out. I lay next to my daughter and called on God, asking Him to protect my heart. At that moment, God’s words flashed through my mind: “The utmost faith and love are required from us in this stage of work. We may stumble from the slightest carelessness, for this stage of work is different from all the previous ones: What God is perfecting is mankind’s faith, which is both invisible and intangible. What God does is convert words to faith, to love, and to life. People must reach a point where they have endured hundreds of refinements and possess faith greater than Job’s. They must endure incredible suffering and all manner of torture without ever leaving God. When they are obedient unto death, and have great faith in God, then this stage of God’s work is complete” (“The Path … (8)”). God’s words gave me faith and strength, and I felt as though God were right beside me, telling me that I must have great faith in Him, that I must be like Job. When trials befell Job, he lost all his wealth and property and all his beautiful children, and he himself developed terrible boils all over his body. But although he suffered a lot of pain, he believed that everything happens by God’s permission. Whether one receives blessings or meets with disaster, as created beings we must stand in our place and, no matter what God does, we must extol His holy name, obey and accept His sovereignty unconditionally, and speak no word of complaint. This is the sense a human being should have. Because Job understood these things, Job ultimately relied on His faith, obedience and reverence for God and stood firm in his testimony. I was now being comforted and encouraged by God’s words, so I knelt next to my daughter’s bed and prayed to God: “O God! Facing death, I see how insignificant and pitiful we humans are. I see the fragility of human life and even more so I see the immaturity of my own stature. Faced with the trial of my daughter’s imminent death, my desire to obey You is so weak. O God! I ask that You keep me from complaining and give me the courage to face my daughter’s death. When Job was undergoing trials, he said ‘Jehovah gave, and Jehovah has taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah’ (Job 1:21). I wish to imitate Job, and truly obey You….” After praying, I held my daughter’s hand and silently looked at her. My heart felt much calmer, and I felt able to calmly face whatever may happen next.
Obedience Ushers in New Hope
It was over 10 minutes later when I noticed that the liquid was still dripping drop by drop and entering my daughter’s body. This showed that my daughter still lived! A new hope was then ignited in my heart: My daughter still lives, and we cannot give up like this. I quickly asked the nurse to call the doctor, and when he came, he said very impatiently, “I told you she won’t survive. Why are you still here?” After making repeated requests, the doctor reluctantly took up the breathing tube and inserted it into my daughter’s airway and, using the machine again, used it to suck liquid from my daughter’s lungs. Three times the tube sucked up some sputum and watery blood, and my daughter suddenly opened her eyes and her face gradually turned pink again. In great excitement, I held my daughter’s hand and I kept thanking God in my heart. The doctor then leaned over and looked at the electrocardiogram, then at the ventilator, and said in amazement, “How come everything has normalized all of a sudden? It’s inconceivable!” He then looked at my daughter’s face and confirmed that she had a good complexion once again. He raised both his hands and danced in the ward, saying joyfully, “I’ve saved Lanlan! I’ve saved Lanlan!” Hearing the doctor say this, Lanlan reached out her hand, motioning that she wanted to write something. I handed her a pen and paper, and she wrote: “God won’t let me die so long as I have one breath left. It was predestined in heaven that I should still live, and I thank God!” After the doctor had read what she had written, he left without a word. I cried just then, not knowing how to express my gratitude to God. I could only keep thanking God in my heart: “O God! Thank You for Your love for me and thank You for saving my daughter. I’ve gained so much over these 3 short days. When I was grieving and helpless, You were with me all the time, comforting and encouraging me with Your words, giving me faith, correcting my wrong views on belief in God, enabling me to truly be obedient before You and to see Your almightiness and sovereignty and wondrous deeds! May all glory be unto You, the one true God! Amen!”
From that day on, my daughter’s condition got better and better each day, and her airway made an excellent recovery. As she was about to be discharged from the hospital, the doctor and a nurse asked me and my daughter to write a letter of thanks to the doctor, but we refused, for I knew that it had been God who had given my daughter life, and so we gave our thanks only to God!
After more than a month recuperating at home, my daughter was able to live normally again and, later, she began to perform her duty in the church.
My Heart Was Moved to Understanding
It has already been several years since these events unfolded, but every time I think of my daughter’s experience of being saved from the brink of death, I feel a deep sense of gratitude to the wonderful salvation of God: Not only did God give my daughter a new lease of life but, even more importantly, through these events I have come to truly understand the truth that mankind’s fate is in God’s hands. At the same time, I also understand that, no matter what situation may befall us, we should always sincerely rely on and look to God, take our proper place as created beings, obey the sovereignty and arrangements of the Creator, let go of our intentions and desires, and not make unreasonable demands of God. Only this is the wisest choice to make! Thanks be to God!
Source From: The Church of Almighty God
Recommended for you:
What Is True Faith? How to have faith in God?
