God at work...

God never ceases to amaze me...i love hearing stories from the bible of wonderful things that He has done..but more than that...to hear stories in our day...of wonderful things He has done...and is doing...

one of the many stories that wiliam p. young...the author of "the shack" shared with those at capital christian center this last sunday...was a story of his mother...before she was married...

she was studying to be a nurse...this was some time in 1946...a couple had entered the hospital...a couple that had had 5 to 6 miscarriages already...and here...the doctor knew...they were about to go through it again...

the doctor called in a skilled nurse...and paul's mother...who at that time assisted in surgeries by standing by for anything that the doctor might need...but her main job was the clean-up after the surgeries...

the doctor started the surgery...cut out the tiny form of a baby...it was tiny...weighing in at 16 oz...one pound...the doctor handed the baby to paul's mother...a young woman at the time...single, never married...and never having a child...and told her to get rid of the baby...

in those days...getting rid of the baby meant throwing it in the incinerator...

paul's mom held this tiny baby...still breathing...and didn't know what to do...but she knew that she couldn't do what was asked of her...she set the baby down on some medical machinary in the room...the machinary was warm...keeping the baby warm...and she went about cleaning up the surgical room...

meanwhile the doctor was telling the young couple...the munn's...that the baby did not survive...

hours passed...and the baby was still alive...the young nurse finally went and told the doctor that the baby was still alive...the doctor was so angry with her...that she had disobeyed his orders...so he told her that she would be responsible to take care of the baby until it died...and that he would make sure that she would never graduate from that hospital school as a nurse...

as this young lady took care of the baby...it dropped 4 oz more before the weight started crawling back up...

the doctor went back and told the munn's that a miraculous thing had happened...and the baby was indeed alive...but most likely would not survive...

two years later...this young nurse received the invitation to a birthday party of this little boy...when she entered the house...she knew exactly which boy it was...he was tinier than all the other children at the party...but he was alive and well...

as the years went by...this nurse got married and had children of her own...one of which was william p. young (paul)...

one day there was a newspaper article about a bishop of some sort that had passed away by the name of dunn...this mother...recognized the name...and made some calls to find out if this man had a son...she found out that there was one son...he was a missionary...

she got in touch with him...when she met him...she was surprised to see a man at 6'4"...as she told him her story...the man said..."my mom & dad always knew there was more to this story...but they didn't know what it was"

during this time...paul had written his book "the shack" and his mother was reading it...as she got to about chapter 4 or 5...she couldn't continue...she couldn't grasp the severity of the story...so she asked this missionary pastor...if he would read it...and give her his thoughts...

well he did...he got the meaning...and he was able to help this mother understand how profound this story was...and how big our Father's love toward us is...

how amazing is God? this story just blows my mind...God pursues us...always...and He will go through great lengths to reach us...we may not always understand...but He truly has everything under control...

at a luncheon several weeks later...this man was speaking...and paul's mother was there...and he introduced her to everyone as the woman who saved his life...

God is alive...God is still working in us, through us, and for us...if we allow Him to...