mgpcpastor's blog

Being in Adelaide means visiting Jozua and his father at the Women’s And Children’s Hospital.
On December 19, preparing to leave, I took his hand, and though his fingers moved, he was sedated and unable to respond.
I told him I’d take his hand and say ‘Hello’ to him again, though I didn’t know where or when.
The events of that day one month ago did not give us much clarity about how the situation was going to work out.
A month later I was able to take his hands again and feel him grasp my hands and respond to my words.
His voice, though still a whisper is audible and growing in strength.
It was such a pleasure to see a smile of recognition as he entered the cafeteria this morning.
Day by day his condition improves.
It was instructive to observe him engage with one of those who is treating him, listening, thinking and working out the responses to what seemed to be basic questions about his feelings and needs.
His father describes physical therapy activities which he assumes Jozua should be able to do easily, but then watches as Jozua has to work out his movements anew.
Years ago Jozua’s parents watched each new achievement in physical activity with delight, but with the expectation that it would come to pass just as it would.
Now they see him reattain those skills with utter thankfulness and appreciative joy. Expectation is overwhelmed with gratitude.
He may remain in hospital in Adelaide for a couple more months, mostly because the level of care available there is not available in Mount Gambier. And, as a country resident, the health system assumes that if he’s not in the hospital he’s not in Adelaide, so, outpatient care in Adelaide would not be available.
Perhaps our government and health bureaucracy might be more flexible about the needs of country patients and their families, but the care he and his family have received has been so overwhelming in its availability and skill that it is a very, very small inconvenience.

So often Christians read the Bible’s words that we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ and appreciate them from the vantage point of how well we function physically and intellectually.
Seeing Jozua today reminds me again how awestruck we should be that we function at all, let alone at the levels which humans attain.
It’s a wonder that everything about us works. It’s a wonder that everything about us that works, works together.
Thinking about how far he has come, and yet how far we anticipate he will come as his brain recovers all its capacities to remember, to think, to process emotions, to formulate instant responses.
Thinking about the healing of his body, the return of muscle tone and how his body will respond to thoughts in an instant.
For me there is wonder at a healing which many who treated him doubted would take place.
But also there is wonder watching and hearing about a human soul and body returning to function.
It seems a miracle that any of us function at all in the way we do.
And it is.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made.

Previously:
Another Week Down The Road To Recovery For Jozua.
A Time Of Lament
A New Day Dawning And We Continue To Pray
Some Better News As We Continue To Pray For Jozua
“Lord, he whom you love is ill” – Continuing To Wait And Pray
The Lord Of The Ages Holds All His Little Ones Safe By His Side…
Be Strong And Courageous – An Update On Jozua
A Visit To Jozua And His Family In Adelaide
Good News
One Miracle After Another – Jozua’s Progress