(This is an article I wrote for Real Life Magazine last year entitled, “What Jesus’ Resurrection Means to Me”. I know I kinda posted about this a few days ago, but it’s worth hearing again! I’m not sure if I’ll get to post this weekend–we’re helping do a puppet show/party for some kids in downtown Atlanta tomorrow and then celebrating Jesus’ resurrection on Sunday.)
I grew up in the church. I’ve heard the stories of Noah, Moses and even Jesus too many times to count. Miraculous flood? Whatever. Plague of frogs? Old hat. Resurrection? Heard it before! Sometimes I wish I could hear these stories for the first time and be amazed at the miracle. Well, be careful what you wish for.
This year my faith has been challenged and stretched more than ever. A few weeks before my 29th birthday, I found out I was pregnant! We were so excited. My mom and dad accompanied us to the first sonogram. We were looking forward to seeing that little baby in there and hearing its heartbeat. As the technician looked around, she kept saying things like, “Where is it? Wow, you’re skinny! I don’t see it yet.” Finally she told us there was no heartbeat. The doctor tested my hormone levels and told us if they didn’t get any higher, they would do a D&C (cutting the baby out of me!) in three days. On the second day, my levels were still too low. The next day I was scheduled to have my apparently dead baby removed.
The night before the scheduled D&C, my husband and I read through a list of scriptures about healing. The second scripture was Exodus 23:25, 26: “Worship the Lord your God . . . and none will miscarry or be barren in your land” (NIV). Right then, I knew God was speaking to me about our baby. That night, I literally dreamed prayers. The next morning as we waited for the final sonogram, we didn’t watch TV, and we didn’t read magazines—we focused on God’s Word and His promise to us. As soon as the technician placed the device inside me, she said, “There it is!” and we heard the heartbeat of our baby girl!
A few months after this trial, my mom called me to say that my dad was having emergency surgery. When I arrived at the hospital three hours later, my mom was leaving the postoperative meeting with the surgeon. She said there was nothing the surgeon could do, and my dad was dying from a cancerous tumor in his colon. She told me, “He’s not going to make it.”
These two events were calling out death to my family. First, the devil had threatened to take my baby, and now my dad!
After my mom told me what the surgeon said about my father, my response was, “That’s not true.” We began to read God’s Word over my dad. We posted scriptures around his room. We spoke scriptures to him and to each other. We prayed in faith, agreeing with Romans 4:19-21: “Without weakening in his faith, [Abraham] faced the fact that his body was as good as dead. . . . Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God . . . being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised” (NIV). Several weeks and many tests later, the doctor declared my dad miraculously cancer-free! We had lifted up a battle cry and won.
Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25, NIV). When Jesus died, He was gone for three days. The disciples didn’t know the rest of the story. They hadn’t sat through Sunday school to hear how it ended! They just knew Jesus was dead.
The doctors declared my daughter and my dad dead. There was nothing they could do to save them. On the outside, to our own eyes, my family was dying. That is why God tells us to walk by believing in Him and not by what we see. Today, my daughter is 7 months old and as perfect as the day God created her, and my dad is cancer free.
Jesus’ resurrection means we can have that same power in our life. You might not have a dead baby or a body dying with cancer; it might be a dead relationship, a dead emotion or a dead dream. Be encouraged, Jesus’ resurrection is the doorway to the resurrection of all dead things in your life.
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(click here to read my dad’s story in detail or here to read the story of my baby girl.)
