Jonathan's Miracle--Part 2

(Continuing from Part 1)

But soon thereafter, a team of three nurses came in to let Jonathan know they would be his team for the surgery. 

The male nurse's name was Jonathan, too! We laughed about that, and I said how I loved the name, that it had a good meaning, "God is gracious."
"That's what I've heard, " the nurse acknowledged. 

And little did we know how gracious God would truly be!

Here nurse Jonathan is with Jonathan (wrapped in something we'd never seen before, a sort of foil, vacuum-warmed blanket) and all his glorious attire, topped with (or should I say, bottomed with) sunshine yellow socks!

Which remind me of the giant Russian sunflowers we passed the day before on our way to Sioux Falls through the South Dakota countryside. 

With Jonathan in surgery, I decided to go get the Honda and park it up closer, since Jonathan was going to be whoozy after anesthesia and surgery. 

I also ventured a walk around the cancer center right next door and found a little corner that had been made into a chapel. 

Not all symbols and signs of God and religion have been exterminated from our country and our hospitals. I stood quietly in this little chapel for a while--knowing I was in the presence of God. 

An open Bible was even there, placed prominently before the glass window where water continuously splashed down on the other side between the glass panes. To my delight, the Book of books was open to the Psalms, this time to Psalm 103. 

I stood there and read the whole Psalm in KJV, pausing the longest at the 3rd verse. 

"Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases."

I paused there a long time. 

It was what Jonathan and I both needed.

Only minutes later, just as I was finishing my last bites of my own boiled eggs and sweet yellow tomato chunks from our own garden, my phone rang. 

"Healthcare," the screen said. 

It seemed way too early. Only half an hour ago Jonathan had headed into surgery. He shouldn't have been done for another 30 or maybe 45 minutes yet, or more. 

I swiped the screen, and the doctor's voice came to me. 

"We're done," he let me know. 

"The fistula was not there."

Are you kidding me?

"It must have healed," the doctor went on nonchalantly, as if such things happened routinely. He only had to excise the abscess area.

And then he told me about finding only one polyp large enough to biopsy, and that the results should be back in a week or so. 

I was so excited I hardly knew what to do with myself. The procedures Jonathan had dreaded the most didn't even have to be done! I messaged our children, our missionary family, and later my siblings.

I got to be the first one to tell Jonathan the good news when he was wheeled blearily back to his room by the nurses. 

By 11:15 that morning, we were on our way home. Jonathan, who had planned on the possibility of a most uncomfortable journey home, was not only able to ride comfortably (thanks to nerve-numbing injection that lasts up to 4 days and helped keep the deep abscess wound from feeling too painful), but got out several times to do last minute errands or buy himself a treat of black licorice at Tractor Supply in Mitchell on our way home. 

I, who usually can't drive more than one or two hours at most without turning it over to Jonathan because I am too weak to drive longer, drove the three and a quarter hours home with no trouble at all.

I was strong enough, alert enough, and got along fine. 

"The Lord will give strength to His people;

the Lord will bless His people with peace."

I would crash the next afternoon, but when I needed the strength, God gave it. 

"He healeth all your diseases."

O Lord, our souls bless You today!