Speechless

January 23, 2017

Day 23:  When There Are No Words:
"Instantly Zechariah could speak again, and he began praising God." —Luke 1:64

Dr. Anderson uses today's anecdote about a woman named Martha who thought she was pregnant, but in reality had ovarian cancer (or at least what looked like ovarian cancer), to remind us that sometimes words are not necessary. We "can still praise God in [our] hearts."

It turned out that Martha had a very large tumor that Dr. Anderson and the gynecological oncologist thought was going to be cancerous, but it was benign. When they first found out that it was a tumor and not a pregnancy, Dr. Anderson and Martha prayed together and "[t]he pathology came back clean." The oncologist didn't understand why, but Dr. Anderson did and he was speechless.

He ends his entry by asking, "Does trying to explain what God has done in your life leave you speechless?

There have been quite a few times when what God has done in my life has left me speechless.  I am often rendered speechless by the beauty of the forest and mountains...and even the ocean.  When my father remarried, we all took a cruise together on a Carnival Cruise Line.  The first night on the ship there was a storm.  We were on a high level of the ship's sleeping quarters and the waves were still crashing against the windows.  It was crazy and awe inspiring.  It left me speechless, the power behind God's creation.  I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the waves rolling toward us.  Lightening lit up the whole sky and I could see the waves far out towering over everything.  It was incredible and something I will never forget.  It made me think of Noah and the flood.

Another time I was left speechless was the day I gave birth to my son Levi.  There is nothing like that experience. Holding my baby for the first time, I began to understand more fully the miracle of life and the love of creation—God's love.  I had natural childbirth and brought Levi into the world surrounded by family and friends in my own bedroom.  It was the greatest experience of my life and I will be forever grateful that God blessed me with a child.  Being a parent has helped me to understand what it means to love unconditionally.  I know it should not be this way, but for love to grow and last between a husband and a wife, there are conditions.  There are certain expectations that each person must meet, but with a child, there are no conditions.  At least not in my mind.  I will always and forever love my child...beyond reason.

If I think back, probably one of the most profound experiences I had that left me speechless was when I was a child.  I used to run quite free as long as I was home by dark.  My brothers were often left in charge of me and one time I scared my oldest brother Lonnie half to death because he couldn't find me.  I was visiting with a new neighbor far up the street.  She had just moved into the house and was getting settled.  Her grass had recently been cut and there was a dog rolling around on it.  I love dogs, and this one seemed so friendly that I went up to pet him.  The woman talked to me for awhile outside and then invited me into her house for some cookies.  Normally, I would never enter a stranger's house.  I had been taught "stranger danger," but I felt completely at ease with this woman so I followed her in.  She gave me a few freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and began talking to me about God and how he has blessed her.  She even gave me a little booklet that explained in kid's terms what it meant to give your life to Christ.  I thanked her for her kindness and I promised to read the little booklet she gave me.  It felt like I had only been there for a little while, but when I got home, my brother Lonnie read me the riot act because I had been gone for hours.  It was getting dark and he had been calling for me up and down the streets of our neighborhood.  I never heard him.
The next day I went back to the house to see if the dog was out and if the woman was home.  The house was completely empty (I still get goose bumps when I think of it) and the grass was high, almost up to the sill of the bay window in the front.  It was like no one had ever been in the house.  I asked a man passing by what happened to the woman who lived in the house just yesterday. He looked at me quizzically and said, "No one has lived there for months."  Speechless.