Ridgell's Originals

My grandson Andrew had an accident in a swimming pool last Sunday night and ended up spending the night in Cook's Children Hospital emergency room.  He hit his head and his vision was blurry and the right eye was not tracking.  The CAT scan and MRI turned out OK but he had to see a Nuero Ophthalmologist this morning.  Long story short, he does have some nerve trauma that should heal on its own.  It could take weeks -- or months -- and until it does, he is seeing two of everything.  And of course, no playing ball, no bike riding, no running -- you know, all the things a 9 year old boy loves to do.

It was pretty traumatic for everyone.  Not at all how my son expected to end Father's Day.  Certainly not what Andrew thought would happen.  Hard on Mom and his brother and sister.  Hard on the grandparents.  We stayed up most of the night praying for Andrew.  And most of yesterday and last night praying for the Doctor visit.  Asking God for healing.  Thanking him for the other times He has intervened to heal our grandkids.  Asking to do it again.

Andrew handled it with amazing faith.  He has consistently been cheerful and confident God will take of things.  Mom and Dad faced it with a strong conviction that God was in charge.  Us too.  And for our family, it is not just talk.  We believe God will handle whatever comes.  We had -- and still have -- very specific requests for God to restore Andrew's vision and to do it quickly.  But it will be OK whatever God does.  We all decided a long time ago that He is in charge of our family.

But it was not just Andrew's family that spent hours in prayer for him.  Countless friends and acquaintances have been lifting Andrew up constantly.  And I think God heard and that is why the prognosis is favorable.  Not luck ... but God.

Which leads me to a point about Facebook.  There are lots of bad things about Facebook.  I cringe at some of the pictures and some of the posts.

But Jamie put out an update about Andrew on Facebook.  Marsha shared it.  And I shared her post.  And it took off from there.

Hundreds of comments with everyone of them backed up by prayer.  Lots of emoticons on the posts -- each of them representing someone that prayed.

So God used Facebook to have a lot of people lift Andrew up in prayer.

God heard and He is answering.

Thank you God.

Thank you God's family.

And thanks to Facebook for reminding me that God uses lots of things to do His will.

Who would have thought it ... except God, Jamie, and Marsha.