Miracles in the ER
Read Miracles in the ER Online
Authors: Robert D. Lesslie
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
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Cover by Left Coast Design, Portland, Oregon
Cover photo © bikeriderlondon / Shutterstock
All the incidents described in this book are true. Where individuals may be identifiable, they have granted the author and the publisher the right to use their names, stories, and/or facts of their lives in all manners, including composite or altered representations. In all other cases, names, circumstances, descriptions, and details have been changed to render individuals unidentifiable.
MIRACLES IN THE ER
Copyright © 2014 by Robert D. Lesslie, MD
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lesslie, Robert D., 1951-
Miracles in the ER / Robert D. Lesslie, MD.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-7369-5482-2 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-5484-6 (eBook)
1. Hospitals—Emergency services—Popular works. 2. Emergency medical personnel—Popular works. 3. Medical emergencies—Popular works. I. Title. II Title: Miracles in the emergency room.
RA975.5.E5L48 2014
616.02'5092—dc23
2014002581
All rights reserved.
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To Barbara—my wife and editor in chief
And to my grandchildren, the surest evidence of miracles in my life—
Jack Sullivan
Connor Thomas
Denton Lesslie
Caris Ann
Christian Nathaniel
Adah Elizabeth
…and those to come
Contents
The Miracle of Answered Prayer
Little Children, Fools, and Drunks
The Miracle of a Changed Heart
D
oc, I’m tellin’ ya, it was a miracle!”
Fresh out of my residency, when one of our ER patients would tell me this, my usual response was to assume the “position”—one arm folded across my chest, my chin cupped in the other hand. Slowly nodding my head, I would patiently wait until he—or she—finished, then get on with the matter at hand.
Not that my faith didn’t allow for the occurrence of miracles, or unexpected acts of God. It was just that the ER didn’t seem a likely place for these things to happen.
That was more than thirty years ago, and things have changed. Or at least I have changed. The “position” now is to pull up a stool, rub my hands together, and say, “Tell me about it.” I have seen and experienced too many unexplainable things to discount anyone’s story and the ability and willingness of the Lord to act directly in our lives.
As it turns out, the ER is just the place for miracles. We deal with matters of life and death, joy and grief, happiness and sorrow. And we deal with people from all walks of life and with every imaginable—sometimes
unimaginable—
problem. Why shouldn’t we expect to find the Lord in this place? And if things happen that we can’t explain, whose shortcoming is that? If we open our eyes and our hearts, we soon come to agree with C.S. Lewis when he wrote,
Miracles do not, in fact, break the laws of nature.
To the contrary, it seems that miracles are a natural and intentional part of creation—and a very real part of each of our lives. If only we had eyes to see.
Days pass, years vanish and we walk sightless among miracles.
A
TTRIBUTED TO A
J
EWISH
S
ABBATH PRAYER
And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.
M
ARK
10:51-52
ESV
