To See A Miracle

Pastor Grayneb- The Joy After Pain

I came into youth group late, yet again.  Everyone turned to look at me, but their attention was soon lost as I slid in the back with my friend Ashlee.  She turned and gave me a smile then looked back at the pastor.  Since I had no clue to what was going on, I tapped Ashlee on the shoulder and whispered, "Why is everyone so quiet?"  She replied, "He said he was going to talk about his children or something.  We should be quiet."  Since when did Pastor Grayneb have kids?  From what I knew, he was a bachelor.  No kids, no wife.  Turning my attention to the front where Pastor Grayneb stood, I heard him tell this story.

"Quite a while ago, I was only twenty six, I was down at a prison talking to some of the prisoners in there.  I did this a lot and on thes particluar day, I was getting ready to go home.  I was passing by the cells full of sad and angry and broken people when someone called out to me.  I figured they wanted a Bible to read, so I turned around to see who had called me.  It was an old bearded man in an orange suit.  As I looked at him, he stood and started talking.  I'll never forget what he said.  he got up as close to my face as the cold metal bars would allow, then he said, "God has given me a message for you." 

 At this point, I thought he was a bit crazy, but  I let him continue.  "You will marry a beautiful lady in four months." This scared me, because I was getting married in four months.  But I passed this off as a good guess.  Then the man went on to say, "Your first child will be a son.  He will be a strong, strapping fellow with a quiet personality.  Your secon and last child will be a gorgeous young lady.  She will be very intelligent and have a voice as soft and delicate as a rose." 

 By now, I was definately weirded out.  I should have left, but I didn't want to be rude.  The grizzly man continued his message growing more angery by the second. "But you are a sinful man." He spat. "You do not deserve all of this.  If you fail to ask God for forgiveness, He will take it all away.  Your family will all die off until you are the last one of your blood living."  At this point I finally got smart and left.  But his words did, and still do, haunt me.  His prediction of my marriage was correct.  I married the woman of my dreams and later had a son.  He was just as the man predicted- quiet but strong and caring.  Years later, my daughter was born just like the man said. 

Now I was becoming scared.  I knew I was a Christian and I also knew I was right with God.  There was no unseen sin in my heart to speak of.  But I became worried his predictions would come true.  For not only were two children and a wife granted to me, but I was an orphan.  This started to fulfill the part of his prophecy where he said I would be the last of my blood.  I never mentioned this to anyone, though.  I knew we would have all become paranoid.  I couldn't believe it when my twenty year old son came to me saying he was joining the army.  I let him because he was so ferverent about it, but it was one of the hardest decisions of my life.  He said he knew it was God's will, so off he went.  He trained for years, and then was shipped off to Iraq.  Every day I prayed for his safety.  Imagine my shock, though, when six months after my son left, I discovered my daughter had cancer.  It was level four; the doctor said there was nothing they could do.  My wife and I were distraught, but we kept our faith." 

Pastor Grayneb took a breath.  I realized I was gripping Ashlee's hand insanely tight.  I hoped he was not about to say what I thought he was. 
"She died eight months later.  My wife and I were in the hopital with her when the heart monitor started skipping beeps.  The nurses ran around trying to fix it, but by then, she was gone.  Not even five minutes later, a uniformed officer came into the room.  At first I thought my son came to say goodbye to his sister.  I was agonized that he hadn't made it on time.  Then the officer started speaking.  He explained how my son was a brave soldier and had run back to save a injured comrade.  A bomb went off amoung the shooting.  They were both instantly killed.  I was heartbroken, but my wife was worse.  She turned pale and collapsed beside me.  She was admitted to the emergency room immediately and died three days later of a stroke.  I knew that man's message had come true.  I lost my entire family in a small span of four days."

At this point there was not a dry eye in the entire classroom.  We had no idea what to do.  Pastor Grayneb finally continued, "I sunk into a depression as I thought of my missing family members.  I had many months to exame my heart, and I came to a conclusion; I had not sinned.  God was not punishing me, but he was allowing Satan to test me.  And I was failing the test.  After I realized that, remembered something.  On that awful day when the officer came to the hospital and told me of my son's death, he gave me his phone number.  So pulling myself together, I called him.  He wasn't a Chirstian, os he was amazed when I climbed out of my depression.  Curious, he asked me to explain my religeon.  And you know what he does today?  He is a part of the medical team.  He is not a doctor, but he still saves lives as he talks with the injured soldiers.  He may not save the earthly body, but every day he brings thousands of dying soldiers to Christ." 

While almost everyone in the room was crying now, a smile broke across my face.  It was amazing to see God work in that awful situation.  I leaned over and whispered to Ashlee, "Amazing isn't it?  To see a miracle?"