A few days ago, Cindy received a text saying some friends of ours were in the hospital. They were riding their bike when a vehicle slammed into them from behind. The local hospital was not equipped to care for their injuries, so they were flown to the trauma center in Billings, Montana. As of this writing, authorities have been unable to locate the vehicle’s driver.
 
Cindy and I made the 400-plus mile trip to see our friends and arrived at the hospital to learn that my friend was well enough to be in town running some errands, but his wife, having been hit first and sustaining the most severe injuries, was still in ICU. She was conscious but intubated and sedated. She had undergone three surgeries in as many days. After Cindy and I spoke to her for a short while, we prayed for her recovery and wisdom for her doctors. Afterward, we left a note for her husband. I doubted that she would remember our visit.
 
Another fellow recently told me how his wife had been diagnosed with uterine cancer that had spread to several surrounding organs. Her husband, a new believer, had just read the book of James and suggested she be prayed over and anointed with oil. The prayer was straightforward; they could do that, but they had no oil in their house. All they could find was mayonnaise. So, guess what? She was prayed over and anointed with mayonnaise! At their following visit with the doctors, she was told they could see where the cancer had been but that the tumors were gone. She was cancer-free! Praise the Lord!

While I could spin off this event and wax elegantly on how fragile life is, how a few seconds can suddenly end or permanently change a person’s life forever, I won’t. There is a more important lesson here: where there is life, there is hope — and hope brings life. May the Lord of life and hope, the Lord who honors prayers of faith in accordance with His will, bless those seeking truth, seeking Him and seeking to represent Him in a way that draws others to Him.

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