The Shunammite Woman - A Woman Who Believed In Miracles

How strong is your faith? What is the object of your faith?

Lately I have come to understand a whole new dimension of my faith, or rather the areas of my heart that are still filled with doubt. I often ask Marshall, "Do you still think God can heal our little girl?" To which he always replies, "Yes I do." After I asked him this question one night, I told him that I was clinging to the hope that the doctors had given us a 1% chance that she may not have trisomy 18. He swiftly turned his head and looked at me and said, "Our hope is not in the 1% chance they have given us or that the blood tests could be wrong. Our hope is that God has the power if He so chooses to heal her. If she is born perfectly healthy we will attribute that to a healing from God, not a medical mistake." This took me by surprise as I began to examine my heart and realize I had more faith at believing there could be a medical mistake than that God could totally heal Margaret Anne. In that moment I was so ashamed of my feeble faith in the God I know and love. I think with my nursing background I am overly aware of the realities of blood tests and DNA testing. I felt that I could put my faith in medicine and when that allowed for uncertainty then I was allotted my 1% hope of error. Marshall sat there beside me holding me in his arms and gently said, "Even if the tests were 100% sure she has this, we still have 100% chance of God performing a miracle. He is not limited by medicine." At this my heart broke and the tears began to fall freely onto my husband's shoulder. How could I not have seen this mountain of doubt in my heart and mind? Marshall's last thoughts on the subject have not quit replaying daily through my mind. He simply stated, "You have been sitting in a one-legged chair hoping it holds you up when you could have been sitting in a four-legged chair. I don't know about you but I like my odds a lot better in the four-legged chair!" 

As I have thought about miracles and faith the last week or so, I have gone back to a small story I love in 2 Kings 4 about the Shunammite woman. I found this story in the Old Testament years ago and proudly proclaimed that I wanted to be a woman of faith like this Shunammite woman. How far I have to go! She is such a small character that we don't even get her name but her story speaks for itself. Elisha the prophet passes through a small town and this woman, full of hospitality and discernment, invites him to dine with them. Later, she tells her husband that she recognizes him as a man of God and she makes preparations in her house for him to stay there whenever he passes through the town. Elisha is so overwhelmed with her generosity that he wants to give her something in return. She was a woman of great contentment and the only thing she desired was a son but her husband was old and it seemed impossible. The prophet tells her within the year she would embrace a son. Just as with Sarah, the impossible happened and she had a son. When the child was older, he developed a strange illness and died suddenly on his mother's lap. She immediately saddled up her horse and tells her husband, "All is well", and goes to find Elisha and tell him what has happened. Just as she had recognized Elisha as a man of God, she recognized that her only hope in this hopeless situation was in the God whom Elisha served. He is God of the impossible. He is God "who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist." (Romans 4:17) Eventually, Elisha returns with her to the house and brings the boy back to life. Truly, God performed a miracle that defied medical science, human understanding, or even 1% chances. 

The point of this story is not a name it and claim it miracle for Margaret Anne. The point of this story is the object of our faith (specifically my faith) and how even as a believer He continues to strengthen that faith. Even if Margaret Anne has trisomy 18 and does not live on this earth for long, the object of our faith, Jesus Christ, is still bigger and more powerful than medicine. He is greater than suffering, illness, and disease. His all encompassing grace is extensive enough for a young couple who may experience the loss of a child barely a year into their marriage. He is the only worthy object of ALL my hope and faith. I am so thankful for a strong, godly husband by my side for the journey who speaks truth into my life, holds me in my guilt and shame, and loves me enough to help me grow in my faith. Sometimes when Marshall looks me in the eyes I tell him I see the eyes of Jesus looking back at me. That night Jesus met me in my doubt and spoke tenderly to my heart through my husband. What a sweet reminder that our God is still in the business of miracles and that while we sit in the waiting room of His grace, He gives us a four-legged chair to sit in. 

"In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith - more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire - may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 
1 Peter 1:6-7

~ Mary Michael