The child’s lifeless body was pulled cold and blue from the bottom of the pool where he had been discovered by another child swimming that day. The child desperate to save him held his limp body to the side of the pool, calling for help. Immediately, chaos swept through the party as the reality of the situation hit. Adults ran to the pool’s edge to lift him from the water, and prayer rang out as desperation and helplessness pressed in. The child lay lifeless as his mother knelt by his side weakly pressing on his chest, begging him to breathe. I heard myself, as if from a distance, shouting “I know CPR!” as I moved between the child and his mother. I remember thinking, what are you doing? I had taken one CPR class 10 years earlier. But I knelt on the hot pool deck, unaware my skin was burning from the heat. And I thought through the steps I had rehearsed in my head over and over throughout the years as I began to perform CPR. As I worked, the people who had gathered for what was supposed to be a birthday party surrounded us and declared with all they had that he would live, calling for the breath of God to be in my lungs as I breathed into the child. Every time I came up for air, I sought his little face for signs of life, desperate to see the light in his eyes. Breathe, Pump, pump, pump, breathe, pump, pump, pump. Still nothing, he remained blue as his mother wept, and his father looked on in horror, both in shock and crying out in faith for life to come.
I sat in the throws of chaos, as purposeful, powerful and desperate prayers flew up around me, But peace enveloped me as time slowed and a checklist of what needed to be done floated through my mind. I knew I needed a miracle—a miracle I had once wished I would witness. Not realizing, in my awe of the miraculous, I had failed to calculate that in order to see the dead raised; first, I would be faced with the despair of death. I had not thought about faith needing to rise above the hopelessness of natural laws to establish hope in impossible odds and overcome the natural with the supernatural. I had only thought that of my desire to see God move in the miraculous.
I knew I needed a miracle—a miracle I had once wished I would witness. Not realizing, in my awe of the miraculous, I had failed to calculate that in order to see the dead raised; first, I would be faced with the despair of death.
Hope did rise that day as I knelt by his lifeless body and watched a miracle as his spirit returned to his flesh, light returned to his eyes, and breath was drawn again into his lungs. As life filled him again, his mother grabbed him into her arms, rocking him, overwhelmed, I’m sure, with a conflict of emotions as she wrestled with the tragedy that could have taken her son’s life and marveled as we all did that life and Love had the victory that day. The ambulance arrived shortly after and whisked him away to the hospital to be sure he would survive. What they would discover was just how miraculous his breathing again truly was.
The Doctors ran all of their tests only to discover the child had in fact died, passing all his bodily fluids and reaching the stage of death where organ and brain damage are certain. The doctor informed his parents that a child who had reached this stage should not be sitting in his hospital bed, seemingly unaffected by the events of the day, let alone have absolutely no signs of having drowned. The doctor opted to keep him overnight for observation as a precaution but stated, “I have no reason to hold him other than the fact that he should not be ok.” The child was released the following day, returning home to play a round of Basketball with his father.
This Is one of God’s Stories I love to remember. It is one of my favorite, “Wow!” moments with God; For more reasons than I can count or share in a single post. Not only had God raised the dead, but he had prepared me beforehand so that when the enemy struck, I already had what I needed. The night before this event unfolded, I had been up with God nearly all night. I have a hard time describing this encounter because my state of consciousness is something I have never experienced before or since. I was aware of God’s presence being very near. I trembled from the power of it all night as I slipped in and out of sleep. I saw images throughout the night of water and the party, but the pictures were only in part and gave me no real understanding. When I woke in the morning, God’s presence was still strong all around me. I felt barely functional because I was overwhelmed by God’s presence with me. It was tangible as I got ready, went to the church, throughout the service and at the birthday party following.
I didn’t even have to think when the young child was pulled from the water. Everyone else seemed frozen by the shock, but somehow I swung into action as if I already knew everything that needed to happen. The “Wows” of this moment are innumerable because as I look back, I am struck with wonder. God could have just raised him from the dead; that would have been enough. Instead, In His love for me, he wove a beautiful tapestry of events to build faith in me. Faith that gives me strength that no enemy can shake. The further I get away from that moment the more I see God in it.
God Is Never Caught Off Guard!
About a year after God raised that little boy from death, I was reading in my journal and came across a dream I had written down; I had completely forgotten the dream until I read it again in my journal. At this moment the memory of the dream came flooding back to me. The entry was from about a year before the events of the child’s drowning. In the dream, God had taken me into heaven. We stood in this beautiful place with the most incredible golden light. As a photographer, I love light, especially the light of “Golden Hour.” It is my absolute favorite. The light at this time is magic as the evening light washes everything in a golden hue; it fills me with joy I can not explain. Golden Hour is the closest I can come to describing this light, but that does not even compare to the light of Heaven. It is purer and brighter and saturated with wonder. In the dream we stood in this beautiful place washed in the purest light, and God began to hand me beautifully wrapped gifts one after another. I understood He was giving them to me to give to others, but I did not know to whom. Finally, he handed me one last gift, and when he handed me this gift, He said, “This one is for Payton; you will know when the time comes to give it to him.” The Child who drowned and God raised to life, you guessed it, his name is Payton. God had given me all I needed for that moment, far before it was ever needed.
God is never caught off guard. He knows what you need when you need it and how to put it in you for the perfect time. When I think over this event in my life, I am overwhelmed by everything God did that day and leading up to that day. Each time, my wow list grows more and more. Over the years, I see God’s hand in all the tiny little details. The ones I missed at first because the grandeur of the moment. All the little details that reveal His hands are bigger and broader than I could understand. They all serve as a reminder of His greatness and how no person could put so much detail into a single moment. With time, the details don’t fade but become clearer, and my awe of the layers, upon layers, upon layers of all God did with that one tiny moment grows greater and greater. The whole event, from Payton being found in the pool to being whisked away in an ambulance, probably took 10-15 minutes max. But a lifetime of lessons has come out of those moments, and a heart completely consumed by faith was sealed into me that day.
Many times since, I have faced challenges, questions, and trials that have shaken me and threatened to bring me to a place of despair. Yet every time, the Holy Spirit reminds me that not even death can keep Him from Victory.
Do you have a “Wow” list? A collection of moments where God has come through at the perfect time. Moments where your only answer was God, and he did not disappoint. This list is my secret to overcoming discouragement every single time without fail. It is what brings me back to peace when the storm is blinding. It’s what settles my spirit when all seems lost, and the battle still rages on. Because it reminds me of who God is and how He has never failed me. It causes me to rejoice and be in awe of God’s faithfulness to me. It literally Wows me. Remembering the goodness of God to overcome the enemy is not a new strategy. It is one God used to strengthen Israel. He had them build alters in the place where God had rescued them as a reminder of His Faithfulness and His great Power. King David also used this same principle when everyone else had lost hope.
“Now David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God”
(1 Samual 30:6).
If you’re unfamiliar with this story, this moment is right after David and all the men who followed and depended on him returned from battle to discover their wives and children, and everything of value had been captured and led away. David is looking at not only the loss of his own family but also the loss of every one of the families of the men under his leadership. If that is not hard enough His men begin to turn on him. David is utterly alone in a desperate situation. He has every reason to despair, but David does something different, and it is something we can all learn from. The New King James says, “strengthened himself in the Lord,” but the King James says, “encouraged himself in the Lord.”
I love knowing both versions because it gives a fuller picture of exactly what he did. He had plenty right in front of him, telling him it was over, the enemy had won, and there was nothing left to fight for, but David turned his face to God and reminded himself of who His God Is. If David had let despair take him, he would have lost everything. His men had already given into fear and despair. But, David drew near to his God, gathered strength, and took action. David, strengthened by the Lord, rallies his men. They pursue the enemy, and they get everyone and everything back. Nothing was lost. Imagine the outcome if David, like his men, had given into his despair. There would have been no one to rally the troops and no one to take action. Often, our great victory is just the other side of that place of hopelessness. When you rise up and strengthen yourself in the Lord, you allow yourself to press through to Victory.
IF you don’t already have a “Wow” list I challenge you to put one together and if you can’t think of any moments borrow them from the Bible and ask God to help you build one with Him.
