As long as I live, I won’t forget those smiles. Beaming as big as the Caribbean sky! Mother and daughter, with twin colossal smiles that proclaimed throughout the whole village “Cristo Sana!!!” Jesus heals!!!!
As long as I live, I won’t forget that little girl voice. Big curls were bouncing as the once crippled little girl RAN and SKIPPED across the platform, shouting in a voice that still contained all the innocence of childhood, “Gloria Dios, Gracias a Dios!!” “Praise God, Thank you God”
As long as I live, I won’t forget the praise. Little brown arms that stretched up to the sky, she was singing with her face looking directly into the heavens. There were microphones for singers and preachers, but the loudest praise came from the lame child that was healed.
For a missionary who has held the crippled, looked into the face of a mother begging for money to buy her child medicine, and watched the villagers follow a petite pink casket, I know what this means. I know about the scraping and the saving and the begging of that mother, doing what needs to be done to fix her crippled baby.
Sometimes we wonder, why are these spectacular miracles so much more common outside of the United States? Maybe this is a question that doesn’t have an answer. Except I have seen too many children suffer, and even die for sicknesses that could be resolved with medicine or a visit to the doctor. Here in the developing world, it’s just not that simple. So I wonder if the desperate need produces a faith that seems much more probable and reliable than medicine or doctors.
Therefore, I know what this miracle meant for this family yesterday. I will never forget the joy of that moment. I wanted to hold it, save it, linger in it, because it was so amazing. Today, my words serve as a meager description of this beautiful moment.
Still, these are the memories of yesterday, but what about tomorrow? Today, I am pondering tomorrow. I have a vision of what this miracle means for tomorrow. How does the future look for this child who had an encounter with the POWER OF GOD? I believe that this is one little girl that will not be vulnerable to the prostitution that smothers her village. Perhaps it means that the threat of poverty is diminished because the family’s resources are not consumed by doctors and medicine. And I know that this little girl has a story to tell the whole world. Others will know Jesus because of last night’s miracle! At the age of eight, she has her whole lifetime to tell the story! What tremendous possibilities await, as the unforgettable, supernatural POWER OF GOD becomes the transformational catalyst for the future.