Three miracles in a row

The past few weeks have not always been the easiest. It started a few weeks ago while we were on vacation in Sweden. Laurens fell ill and since he was to undergo surgery the following week, we didn't want to take any risks and came home earlier. In vain, because his cold turned out to be pneumonia, and the operation therefore had to be postponed.

In itself, that seemed like great bad luck, and it wasn't nice that all the preparations fell through, that the entire school planning was ruined, but there was also an advantage. By being home earlier, I was on time to be with my grandmother. She is 82 years old and takes care of my 84-year-old grandfather every day. He has been blind for several years since a severe brain hemorrhage and has both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. He is therefore severely dependent, but my grandmother still wants to take care of him herself. She has promised“in good days and bad days” and she believes it is her duty to care for him as long as she can. I admire her for this; she is a good example for me.

However, it is because of that care that she got into trouble. She has to pull and drag a lot, because my grandfather can no longer get out of bed himself. Some time ago, she made a wrong move and fell with him. In doing so, she suffered damage to her spine, and naturally, by continuing to pull and drag, it did not get better, on the contrary. So an operation became necessary.

Before her operation, I was able to have a nice conversation with her. I knew that my grandmother believes, in a way that you often find among people of that age who were partly raised by priests and nuns who held both the Bible and a rod in their hand. A faith without doubt, but also without much depth, more an evidence than a conscious choice.

I noticed she was nervous. Not only for the operation, but especially for her recovery and the question of whether she would still be able to care for her husband. I told her that in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we have an ordinance where someone holding the Melchizedek Priesthood gives an anointing and blessing to someone who is sick.
My grandmother asked if that was the same as the anointing of the dying in the Catholic church and that she was not dying yet. I told her that that sacrament went back to the same practice, but that Christ had never stated that an anointing should only be given to the dying.

I also asked her if she could believe that I had been granted that priesthood, in a chain and direct line that goes back to Jesus Christ. She said that she could tell from my faith that I firmly believed in it and that she could therefore trust in it. I then asked her if she wanted such an anointing and to my surprise, she said yes.
We were sitting on her porch, with a pleasant warmth from an autumn sun. It was a special moment. I gave her an anointing and a blessing in which I said that she would have no pain and that if she took enough real rest, she would recover very quickly.

My grandmother said after the blessing that she found it a very special moment. She suddenly felt very calm. I told her that this was the Holy Spirit testifying to her that what I had said did not come from me but was inspiration from above.

5-hour operation and intensive care

About Laurens then... After the operation was postponed in August, he had recovered sufficiently by the end of September for his surgery. On Sunday, he left for the hospital. Just before his departure, I also gave him an anointing and a blessing. I spoke the words that he would experience pain initially, but I blessed his body with the strength to respond well to painkillers. I also blessed him with peace to remain sufficiently calm in the hospital.

The operation started Monday morning at 7 AM and was supposed to take a few hours, but it wasn't until after noon that we received the relieving news that he was in recovery and we could visit him. It was not a pleasant sight to see him lying there with all those tubes and machines. He had to spend the first two days in intensive care and received constant morphine. But apart from a few brief moments when he was awake and complaining about wanting to go home, he mostly slept and complained little about pain.

After 4 days, he was even allowed to drink again and eat something the next day. During that week, there were ups and downs: you get good news about the progress, but then there's something wrong with the blood again, suddenly you see the temperature rise, ... As a parent, you're exhausted there in the hospital, because the surgeon had honestly said that there was a 10% chance of complications and that 10% of those complications were fatal. So you only want to hear good news and such a week is incredibly draining.

But Isabel, Laurens, and I got through it. After exactly one week, he was allowed to go home. Before the operation, it was said that recovery in the hospital would certainly take ten to fourteen days, so it was truly a miracle that he recovered so quickly. We were not even prepared to be back home with our whole family so soon.

Jeff Hoeybergs wrote in a comment on my Facebook that if things go well, we thank the Lord, and if things go badly, we sue the doctors. That's not how I see it. I prayed that Heavenly Father would bless the surgeons and nurses so that they could bring forth all their skill in the best circumstances. I am immensely grateful to the doctors for their skill, but I also recognize that it is a blessing in our lives that we have such medicine available. And the fact that Laurens recovered better than expected is nothing short of a miracle.

A small baby saved

While I was in the hospital, I heard that a brother's five-week-old baby had been admitted to the hospital with bacterial meningitis. Since I was already there, I offered to visit and help with an anointing, as this brother didn't have much experience with it yet. When I went to the intensive care unit, I knew I would be back in the same room. I just felt it, and it turned out to be true. The same room where Laurens had been was now for little Gérard.

The father performed the anointing, and I pronounced the blessing. I testified that earlier that week, in that same room, I had felt the Holy Spirit helping with a good recovery, and that this would happen again.

The next day, I received a call that the baby had woken up, and three days later, he was allowed to move from intensive care to a regular room.

Anointings help

You will never hear me say that anointing replaces medicine. God expects us to use our knowledge. He expects that if we walk in a meadow with a bull behind us, we run faster and pray that we have enough strength, and not that we go on our knees to pray that the bull leaves us alone. God expects us to act, not to be acted upon.

But an anointing can give strength, it can ensure that our body heals better with medication and that we have the spiritual strength to be stronger. Because I believe in “mind over body”: a healthy mind is better for our body. I believe that in this way we truly have the opportunity to use a little of God's power in our lives through the priesthood. Miracles are not gone from the world, we just need to want to see them.