Last time I shared with you that the Lord has faithfully held our family through some difficult storms. I also promised to share some specifics with you, so today I would like to tell you about one with a happy ending. Like so many of you, we still have ongoing prayers where we continue to wait on the Lord’s timing for happy endings ….
About three years ago, my husband became very ill with symptoms like those for congestive heart failure. He had been a faithful exerciser for twenty five years, and other than a very bad virus just a couple of months earlier he had been the picture of health. For a year and a half he lived with shortness of breath, a terrible cough, fluid on the lungs, and trips to one doctor after another.
His diagnosis – constrictive pericarditis: where the lining of the heart becomes hardened, like a coconut shell instead of a balloon, and adheres to the heart muscle. At the time of his diagnosis he was prescribed medicine and we were told to avoid surgery if at all possible, because it was so rare and risky. Post-op we were told that his heart had been constricted to fifty percent of its normal size.
I will spare you all of the details of the eighteen month journey. It was looong and at moments very frightening. There were times when his lungs were so filled with fluid that he could barely breathe, and just doing a portion of his daily routine was exhausting. When we were told that surgery was his only hope; by God’s grace countless others joined us in prayer that God would spare his life.
We learned so much through it all, but for now I’d like to focus on:
1. It is possible to maintain Holy Spirit empowered hope and joy. My dear husband, Blake, determined early on that with God’s help he would rejoice over every good moment. He said, “I may never feel good again in this life, and I don’t want to spend the time I am given being miserable. With God’s help, I choose joy!” Wow, I learned a lot through the way the Lord used him during those days.
2. When God bestows a miracle – shout out His praises! The Lord provided an awesome surgeon who stripped the pericardium off Blake’s beating heart! She said that she calmed his heart with one hand, and peeled it very slowly with the other as she worked with each beat. He came through surgery with flying colors, and recovered without serious complication! He’s back to exercising and working full-time!
We never would have signed on for this had we been given a choice: however, God used it for our good and His glory!! Hallelujah!
Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; You display Your power among the peoples. Psalm 77:13-14
Genny Heikka
Hurray for a miracle!
What a touching and miraculous story. I love when you said “she calmed his heart with one hand, and peeled it very slowly with the other as she worked with each beat”. Wow. Isn’t that so often how God works with our hearts as well? Thank you for sharing this!
Thanks Girls, Our family continiues to rejoice over this miracle. Everyday I tell my dh, “Thanks for livin’” He laughs and says that it is by God’s grace that the bar has been set so low. LOL He is an amazing man, and I am thankful for everyday that the Lord allows us to share.