A Christmas Miracle

         This season is truly a season of miracles. We anticipate them at this time of year so much that they are called Christmas Miracles. But never have I witnessed the power of the impossible becoming possible like I did during this very week in 2011— when I received my very own Christmas miracle.

         In August of 2011, the National Institutes of Health, (NIH), diagnosed me with malrotation of my small intestines. The malrotation had caused me to lose an excessive amount of weight and had to be corrected with surgery. But I wasn’t ready to set a surgery date and jump onto an operating table just because my doctors said the procedure had to be done.

         I was getting ready to begin my senior year of college at Asbury University and I accepted a leadership position as a chaplain for my hall. My disease had already taken so much from me so I was determined that I’d finish my college career on my terms. I came up with a plan with my professors to combine my week of final projects and final exams so I could have my surgery during the university’s official final’s week. I’d have three weeks to recover and then go back to school for the spring semester to finish my senior year and graduate. My doctors signed off on this plan and my surgery date was set for December 13^th, 2011.

         Even though my health continued to deteriorate during that semester, I would never go back and change my decision to wait to have surgery. God gave me a beautiful semester where He redeemed a painful past, old wounds began to heal, and I grew as a person. I left my fall semester of college with an “A,” average and a sense of satisfaction that I had done my best through what seemed like insurmountable odds.

         The procedure took place on a Tuesday and I came home the following Sunday— totally routine after bowel surgery. So what happened next no one saw coming.

My body went downhill devastatingly fast.

The day after I came home from surgery, my parents had to take me back to the hospital. By Tuesday night my hemoglobin had dropped to a frightening 2.8. Hemoglobin is the part of the blood that controls the oxygen throughout the body and brain, so when the hemoglobin is low, the body isn’t getting the oxygen it needs to function or to remain lucid.

My blood pressure dropped to 30 over 60 and I was in danger of having a heart attack. I was talking out of my head, I didn’t know my mother or father, and my hematologist told my parents if I survived, I’d probably need to undergo a bone marrow transplant.

I was rushed to ICU and my doctors and nurses explained to my parents I would be transfused, given my Rituximab treatment, and I would receive an antibiotic that commonly causes an allergic reaction where a person’s whole body turns red. They warned my mom and dad that it was imperative I didn’t have a single reaction to any of the medications because my life was hanging on by a thread and it could take no more.

My parents knew I had always had an allergic reaction to these medications…so how was I going to survive? 

My mom and dad were directed to the waiting room to wait while I was connected to machines. They noticed there was no one in the waiting room except for a man sitting at the computer. They thought this was strange because ICU was maxed to capacity that night.

Nevertheless, they began calling people asking them to pray. The first person my mom called was her friend Karen Pelphrey, but she broke into sobs and was unable to finish the conversation. My dad took the phone from her to give Karen the details and all of the sudden the man got up from the computer, walked across the room, and knelt down beside my mom. My mom noticed he had the clearest, bluest eyes she had ever seen.

“What’s the child’s name?” He asked.

“It’s Whitney,” my mom told him.

“Okay, I’ll put her on THE Prayer Chain.” Then he got up, walked out of the waiting room and my parents never saw him again.

He didn’t say I’ll put her on my church’s prayer chain, or I’ll let my pastor know— he said THE Prayer Chain. And the next night the ICU waiting room was completely full.

My parents are convinced the man was an angel sent from God because right after he left for the first time in my life, I had not one single reaction to my treatment or transfusions. My body miraculously did a total 180 and I began to get better much quicker than any of my doctors ever dreamed was medically possible.

I was admitted into the hospital on Monday, December 19^th, 2011 and got to come home on Saturday, December 24^th, 2011— the best Christmas gift ever. Two weeks later, I went back to college to finish my degree and in May of 2012, I graduated with a Bachelors in creative writing. 

Looking back at that dark time seven years ago, I remember what could have been. I marvel at the timing and pieces God intricately sewed together during that week so I could remain on this earth.

14 times He made the impossible possible to be exact. 

This ornament is filled with the 14 miracles
God performed on my behalf during that Christmas season

The greatest part of this story though? I went from fighting for my life to living life to the fullest because God placed His healing hand on my body. Everyone who knows me can only shake their heads in amazement and agreement to the fact that my new story, my beauty from ashes, and my MORE began in 20ll when God gave me something precious: 

A Christmas Miracle.

Before the Mountains

         This week has been a whirlwind. Between writing an article that was due yesterday and helping my mom get ready for her surgery that was also yesterday (thank you for praying for her) daze and exhaustion has set in. But I still wanted to share with my readers about a cool moment God gave me.

         Tuesday afternoon I got the calendar out to schedule and reschedule doctors’ appointments. I was put on hold so the receptionist could look at my specialist’s availability and I took that moment to look at my calendar as well. My eyes immediately connected with a beautiful picture attached to the calendar of a snowy mountainous landscape with the words of Psalm 90:2- Before the mountains were brought forth, or even hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.

         My heart immediately warmed and I thought, ‘wow, before the mountains I faced were ever assigned to my life, before I was ever born, God was God. His authority is what permitted the very peaks and cliffs I had to climb to form because He knew I would victoriously scale them through His Strength in my soul.’      

The Lore Family, a Southern Gospel singing group sings a song called, “Mt. Testimony,” and the first time I heard them sing it, I felt the lyrics had been written for me. My favorite words in the chorus say, “Looking back ore’ the cliffs of Mt. Testimony,  I’m amazed I’m standing here. But the Lord my shepherd led me safe through the valley, and gave me strength to climb. Now I stand on top of Mt. Testimony with His hand still holding mine.” 

That’s exactly how I feel. Every time I look back at the sickness I had to endure, the frightening unknown and uncertain days, and the moments I had to fight for my life, I’m truly amazed I’m standing on top of my Mt. Testimony. That’s why I feel so called to share my story. God gave it to me to be MORE so I can give Him glory in the process.

         So, take heart in the fact that whatever you’re going through today, it’s only happening because God gave His stamp of approval.. He knows you can not only handle it, but you can overcome it. You will stand on top stand on top of your Mt. Testimony, because before that mountain ever came in to existence, this profound truth existed before the beginning of time— God is God.

What’s in Your Alabaster Box?

        Jesus and his disciples were sharing a meal with a prominent Pharisee named Simon. While they were eating a woman carrying an expensive alabaster box of ointment entered Simon’s house, a woman who was known for her sin and uncleanliness.

That woman was Mary Magdalene

The ridiculing whispers she surly endured didn’t deter Mary from doing what she had come to do.  When she reached Jesus she fell at His feet. She began washing His feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing His feet with her alabaster box.

Simon belittled Jesus, saying if He were a prophet then He would have known that this was a sinful woman who touched Him. Then Jesus in perfect Jesus fashion shared with Simon a thought-provoking parable about a creditor who had two debtors. Jesus finished his story by putting Simon to the test, asking him which debtor would love the creditor the most. Simon answered correctly, “ I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most.”

Jesus then uttered the most beautiful words, “Her sins, which were many, are forgiven, for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.”

 It’s pretty obvious by Jesus’s words Mary had lived a pretty rough life. But just what was her great sin? Luke 8:2 reveals Mary was possessed with seven devils. One devil inside of a person would be an unbelievably terrible thing. 

But seven?

My mind can’t comprehend how agonizing that would be. Obviously, Jesus had cut down those heavy chains and set her free, but I get this picture of her being broken and weighted down. Jesus had already freed her from the bondage of seven devils, but had Mary let go of it?

The Lord gave me this thought. 

Not only was the ointment inside that alabaster box, but I believe Mary’s pain, her fears, her doubts, her insecurities were also in there. Not only was she thanking Jesus for what He had done for her, but I think she was once and for all pouring out the heartaches she had lived.

So today, I want to pose this question to you. What’s in your alabaster box? What do you need to pour out at Jesus’ feet? 

I have always believed that situations can make us bitter or better. With God’s strength, I’ve poured my fears, pain, heartache, and insecurities out at Jesus’ feet, and I’ve worked hard to be better, but I have wondered when would I see the fruits of being better.  The devil he knows our story and he wants to keep us from seeing the better of our situations.  The more God wants to use our story, the more Satan is going to fight us.

 Look at Mary Magdalene- she was possessed with seven devils! Satan had to see her God-given potential and that’s why he fought her.  When Mary came to Jesus to anoint Him, she was choosing to be better. She was choosing to thank Jesus for what He had freed her from. She was choosing to let go of the pain and heartache of her circumstances. I think though she might have wondered when she would see the fruits of being better.  Little did she know, Jesus was about to use her story.

Mary of Magdalene went from the woman with seven demons to the woman who selflessly and humbly anointed Jesus. She went from being unclean and unfit to be in company with to one of the people who traveled with Jesus and helped proclaim His good news.  Mary went from having no friends to being one of Jesus’ closest friends— so close she was one of the people who stood at His feet as He was hanging from the cross.  She went from the woman who wasn’t credible, believable or worthy, and Jesus bestowed on her the honor to be the first person who saw Him when He rose from the dead. 

When Mary anointed Jesus, she may have not seen how her story could be used, she may have wondered where the fruit of her determination to be better would come from, but Jesus was going to go exceedingly abundantly above what she could have ever asked or thought.

God gave Mary better.

He’s done the same for me as well. The painful trials I’ve had to go through, when I wondered what good could come of them, God gave me better.

And He can do the same for you. He wants to do the same for you.

I truly believe God’s favorite miracle to perform is to take someone’s hopeless situation, where answers aren’t clear and make beauty from ashes. I don’t know what pain, heartache, doubts, or insecurities you have stored in your alabaster box, but I encourage you to let go of them today, pour them out before Jesus’s feet like Mary did. You may not see how God can use your story, but He already knows your potential— If you trust in Him no matter what He’ll give you the beauty, He’ll give you the better.