| ... | Garden of Miracles Back Injury -- Lynn Zuk-Lloyd A back injury prevented me from caring for my newborn daughter. It was the most frustrating time of my life. I could not hold, burp, carry or pick up my baby. Breast feeding was the only part of mothering that I could manage and that was only accomplished by sitting on a straight-backed chair next to the table where my daughter lay. After someone else placed her on the table, I would wrap my arms around her and stare into her eyes as she nursed. When she was finished, someone else would lift her up and burp her. All my motherly instincts to cuddle and hold my baby were impossible due to back pain. One of my neighbors mentioned that her daughter was part of a prayer group that prayed for healing. I wasn’t sure that God could or would help me. My husband and I didn’t go to church. Except for a quick bedtime prayer, God wasn’t part of our lives. But as the problem persisted and recovery seemed far away, I accepted my neighbor’s invitation to meet with her and her daughter. I wasn’t sure what to expect. We talked about my back injury and prayed a prayer of healing. Nothing happened. “Prayers take time,” I was told. “Don’t be discouraged,” they said. But I was discouraged. I returned home with a copy of the prayer in my hand and a lot of doubt in my head. The whole situation was frustrating. There was little the doctors could do. Time and exercise might help, but I desperately wanted to hold my baby while she was an infant and that wasn’t happening. So I prayed the prayer of healing that evening and the next and the next and the next. My neighbor told me not to give up. My stubbornness to get well kept me praying, even though there were questions of doubt in my head. I started praying twice a day. Then one day, something happened. My daughter cried for her usual nighttime feeding in the middle of the night. My sleep husband got up, picked her up out of the crib and laid her on the desk as I sat on the desk chair. I began to nurse her and my husband went back to bed and promptly fell asleep, as he usually did. Then a few minutes later, he got up, walked over to me and put his hand on my back. The pain disappeared. I was so shocked I said nothing and he went back to bed. In the morning he said that the Lord had told him to get up and rub my back. He declined. The Lord told him a second time to get up and rub my back. He felt his hand get hot and obeyed. When he rubbed my back the pain disappeared. God became real to me that night. Although the excruciating pain was relieved that evening, the back problem took months of exercising to completely heal, but the pain was never as bad as it had been. |
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available for purchase Lynn is a professional graphic designer and digital illustrator who works in a wide variety of styles. She does free-lance work and contract assignments. Garden of Miracles
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