There was no blood, no bump, not even the start of a bruise after 2-year-old Braden fell and smacked his head on a TV stand in his Chesapeake home last fall. His parents, Brad and Jennifer Hennis, dashed to his side to inspect his injury. Seeing nothing, they cautioned him to be careful and let him return to his toys. At dinnertime, Jennifer’s mother, Nancy Bennett, arrived to babysit. Learning that Braden’s afternoon nap had been brief, she thought nothing of his dozing on his Elmo couch
Aware of his earlier fall, however, she worried when she couldn’t wake him all the way up to change him into pajamas. He was extremely groggy, she remembers. So after placing him in his crib, she left his bedroom door open. About a half hour after putting him down, Nancy heard Braden vomiting. “I was really scared,” she says. She called Jennifer and Brad, who rushed home and called 911.
Braden’s parents had no way of knowing that when he struck his head, a skull fracture occurred. The fracture tore an underlying artery on the covering of his brain, creating a massive clot, known medically as an epidural hematoma. The hematoma was rapidly increasing pressure on the brain, whose tissue is like a sponge. The harder the brain is squeezed, the less life-giving oxygen can get to its cells.
After successful emergency brain surgery operation as well as in hospital rehabilitation, Branden miraculously recovered. Today, his doctors say that open bedroom door helped save Braden’s life. (https://www.chkd.org/about-us/publications-and-reports/patient-stories/nick-of-time/)
Like Branden, the Israelites experienced God’s intervention at a vulnerable time in their history. While traveling through the wilderness, they came within sight of King Balak of Moab. Terrified of their conquests and their vast population, Balak engaged a seer named Balaam to place a curse on the unsuspecting travelers (Numbers 22:2-6).
But something amazing happened. Whenever Balaam opened his mouth to curse, a blessing issued instead. “I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it,” he declared. “No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; . . . God brought them out of Egypt” (Numbers 23:20-22). God preserved the Israelites from a battle they didn’t even know was raging!
During these difficult times with the war still raging in Gaza and anti-Semitism on the rise , whether
we see it or not, God still watches over us today. May we worship in gratitude the
One who calls us blessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment