Miracles Happen.

This is one of those things that’s awkward to write because… well, words begin to fail. So I’ll just tell the story as it happened.

During a typical worship service at church, the congregation is asked to volunteer any prayer requests they might have. Being a fairly traditional bunch, requests are usually along the lines of “pray for Aunt Sally’s knee replacement surgery” or “pray for safe travel for the youth group” or similar items.

Two Sundays ago one of the members of the church raised her hand and said “I haven’t slept in two weeks” and broke down in tears, explaining the doctors were at a loss. “Please pray for me.” Stunned silence. Meanwhile for myself and a friend from our Bible study group, her request “please pray for me” was followed immediately by a Spirit-nudge saying “NOW!!” and she and I both prayed quietly.

During the sermon, not knowing my friend had also been praying, I sat down beside her and passed a note: “has this woman been prayed for with laying-on of hands?” She wrote back: “no.” I replied, “do you think we should?” “Yes — I’ll ask the pastor after the service.” “Good — I’ll join you.”

So after the service she and I and a few friends and the new pastor (who grabbed some oil and a prayer book) laid hands on the woman and prayed for her healing. Nothing amazing happened, except that all of us sensed God wanted to act in this woman’s life.

A week later, this past Sunday, the woman was back in church looking well. During prayer time, she said “I want to give thanks to God. Last Sunday I was prayed for for healing, and I went home and that night I slept for the first time in two weeks. And I’ve slept every night since then.”

God not only can heal but does heal. Miracles happen.