“The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” Psalm 18:2
I am my son’s father, but he is not mine. He belongs to The Father, who holds my son is His hand. You see, three times my son’s life has been on the precipice of death, and each time my God has delivered him.
At birth, my son’s umbilical cord was wrapped over his shoulder, and with each contraction of my wife’s uterus, his blood pressure would plummet. Though not yet born, his life was in danger and the doctor quickly decided an emergency Caesarean section was necessary to save him, and 10 minutes later, Travis, my first child, was delivered into the world, amazingly healthy and ready to begin life.
At age 20, Travis was in an accident when the car in which he was a passenger skidded on a rain-slick highway and flew down an embankment and into a row of trees, late at night. The car was so mangled that the emergency responders had to remove him through the windshield. He was conscious and his face was covered in dried blood when we arrived at the emergency room an hour later. After 4 hours of CT scans and examinations, he was discharged from the hospital. Miraculously, he had only a bruised hip and no lacerations large enough to require stitches.
Three years later, Travis was diagnosed with cancer. He suffered from coughing and chest pain for 2 months while doctors misdiagnosed his condition as bronchitis. Finally one morning, after he passed out in my arms, I took him to the emergency room, where a CT scan revealed a large mass around his heart. A biopsy revealed it to be a treatable form of lymphoma, and after 4 months of chemotherapy, he was deemed cancer free, and he remains so now, 5 years later.
My Father has delivered my son each time he faced death. I have come to trust my Father more and more throughout my life, and probably no events have evoked and nurtured that faith and trust like these threats to my son’s life.
I have also gained trust and learned to be deeply grateful by my son’s response to these brushes with death. At age 60, I have never had a serious accident, no broken bones, no disease, no significant chronic pain. I feel blessed to have been healthy my entire life. But I am more blessed by having witnessed my own son experience pain, face a deadly disease, and emerge essentially unscathed and stronger for having endured these perils. Following his accident and his cancer, Travis always had a calmness about himself. He never cried, never expressed fear, never complained “why me?” Though a man of few words, his faith is clearly conveyed in his reaction to life-threatening experiences.
My son is a gift to me, given by My Father, just as Jesus is a gift given to me, and to all who believe, by His father. The Father did not keep His own son from death, but gave him up freely so that we would have life and have it eternally. I know that God has used Travis and will continue to employ him for His purposes. I live in my faith and trust in God’s love and provision, knowing that He is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer in this earthly life, until I reach the everlasting life to come, just as He has been with my son and will see him through to eternity.
In my love for my Father,
Doug