Miracles in Waiting

I promised you my story and here it begins. To give you the right context, I have to start a few years before I was born.

Growing up, I am sure my mother was like any other teenage girl: Fall in love, get married, start a family, and live happily ever after...the end. Perhaps, just for a moment it seemed this would be a dream come true. For a split second, there she was about to start a life with the man she loved. Slow calming breaths were overtaken by the pounding of her heart, as the world faded and she's standing in the moment she dreamed about. "I do..."

I do promise to love and to cherish; for richer or poorer; in sickness and in health... I do. We hear the vows and even memorize them when we are young. Those vows, said in so many ways, mean one thing: I will love you through the good, the bad, and the ugly. However, I think secretly, those brides and grooms think they will be the exception, the "one in a billion" that changes the status quo.

"Sure, I'll stick by you through the good and the bad, but we are so in love, nothing 'bad' will happen to us." For a time, they can live in that bubble, until it happens; the moment their world... their dreams... their future is threatened.

That moment happened for my parents when they sat in a doctor's office and was told troubling news. Despite their love and happiness, they would not be able to have children. They believed strongly in God and their doctor, realizing this fact, revised her diagnosis: "You have a slim to none chance."

That was all they needed. Slim to none was enough to hold on. Slim to none was enough to have faith God would heal, so they waited, in faith, for 8 long years. (I have shorten this story for time's sake, but you should know my dad spent those years running from a call of God on his life to preach.)

These years of waiting led to one moment of absolute faith in action. This moment occurred during a Sunday morning service in Evansville, Indiana, following a Bible Quiz tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio. A missionary's wife stood to tell a testimony from their ministry.

Back in Pakistan, sometime before this service, a woman came to the missionary and asked for prayer, because she could not have children. A miracle happened and she was able to bear a son. Time passed and the young boy became sick, so sick he died, but the woman would not give up on her promise. She began to search for the man of God who prayed she would have this child. She picked up her son’s lifeless body and began to walk.

Miles of dirt road wore at her aching feet. The boy’s body waxed cold and grey. Her tears fell like a harsh rain over the boy as she stumbled from village to village. Day turned to night and her neighbors begged her to let go of the child so he could be given a proper burial, but she refused. She had to find the man of God. When she reached him, the mother cried to the missionary for help. Save my son! As the missionary prayed, the child’s lungs swelled with air and he began to cry.

When the missionary’s wife finished the story, an alter call was given for those in need of a miracle. Without words, my mother and father locked hands and made their way to the front. Neither really knew why the other was going up to the front, but they both believed they had the same prayer in their hearts.

The missionary approached them and asked what they had need of; they replied, “We want to have children.” That was the moment faith and action collided. It was also the moment my father told God, “If you want me to preach, I’ll preach.” Two weeks shy of being one year later, my parents welcomed a fiery red-head into the world… Brittney Diamond Dool.

Since conception, by God’s power, I have been defying the odds and by his grace I will continue. Have faith and when necessary put action to your faith. In his time, God will reveal your miracles in waiting.