GETTING ON WITH LIFE: #3 Taking Another Look

By Dr. Gilbert W. Stafford 
Scripture: Ephesians 3:21-22

A NURSE SEES A MIRACLE

Kim Baird is a registered nurse. She was helping to care for a six-year-old Amish boy in the pediatric intensive care unit of her hospital. He had been kicked by a mule on the family farm. The neurosurgeon referred to his skull as a “jigsaw puzzle of slivers.” His parents had been told that the best they could hope for was a child who could take food orally. He would never walk or talk. The resident physician referred to him as a “neurologic nothing.”

Sammy’s mother, however, did not seem to be at all perturbed. She sat calmly knitting and taking care of Sammy, changing his diaper, bathing him, helping Kim turn him.

One Sunday, Sammy’s mother told the nurse that she would be leaving to go to church, but that Sammy’s older sister would stay with him. She said that her daughter could speak both English and Dutch so that she would be able to translate anything Sammy might say. Kim found that comment totally irrelevant in that Sammy was unable to make an intelligible sound of any sort, much less say anything which would need to be translated from Dutch to English.

The morning watch proceeded. Shortly after noon, the call light went on over Sammy’s door. His sister was calling for help. Sammy had pulled out his tubes. As Kim worked with him, she noticed for the first time that he was looking directly at her, and not with the vacant wild-eyed look he had had before. She thought about replacing the tubes in his mouth then remembered the hard time she had had the previous day without the use of water—he had no swallow or gag reflexes. Anyway, she thought she would give it a try. So, she offered him a drink, and to her astonishment he took it and swallowed it without a problem.

Kim says: “I cannot describe the feeling that came over me as that child gulped down that 60 cc. of plan old tap water—the fluttering of my stomach, the pounding of my heart, the shortness of my breath. And, when I went to refill the cup, Sammy spoke.” One surprise followed another. When his sister translated what he said in Dutch into English, she told Kim that Sammy had just said that he would rather have iced tea. But that wasn’t the end of the story. Deciding that it was time to move him to another level of intake, Kim got permission from the resident physician to offer him some vanilla ice cream. As she raced down the hall to get it, Sammy’s sister called out to tell her that he had just told her that he preferred chocolate ice cream. And while she was gone, he went to the bathroom to void in the toilet.

Sammy was released from the hospital. Two weeks later, when he came back to see Kim, he was walking and talking.

Sammy’s dramatic return to health has led Kim to conclude that circumstances are not always as hopeless as they appear. As the puts it, “On those long days when every I. V. is blown and every resident is in a foul mood, the miracle and triumph of Sammy can still make me smile.”1 She has learned to take another look along the way.

SURPRISED BY GOD

Many things in life deserve another look, don’t they? Too often, we rush headlong through the circumstances of life, so confident about the scenery along the way that we never bother to take another look for the unexpected, for surprises, for miracles. We miss so much because we have ruled out the possibility that God can do the unusual.

In Ephesians 3:20-21, Paul offers a prayer of praise to the God of surprises: “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”2

How often in my own life I forget to take another look at God along the way. I forget to ask, What new things is God doing? What surprises is God providing for me? What new realities are there in my life which I need to appreciate rather than ignore? What is God accomplishing perhaps in ways which are far more profoundly wonderful than anything I had asked or imagined?

According to our text, God is the God of surprises. We ask for one thing to happen in our lives, but God brings about something else which we had not even imagined. We expect to see one thing, but when we take another look, we see something much more spectacular than what we had expected.

Several years ago when all four of our children were still at home, we took a trip to Colorado. I had heard many stories about the seemingly endless miles through the expansive plains of Kansas. Some of our friends had even suggested that we drive through the state at night. And we did consider it. After all, being from Indiana, we knew what farmlands looked like. Kansas would just be more of Indiana, we thought. Why should we drive during the daylight hours through hundreds of miles of farmlands?

But, deciding not to take other people’s advice, we drove to the eastern part of the state where we spent the night at a motel in Topeka. The next morning we started out fresh for driving across Kansas. And what a pleasure it was! We took delight in the mammoth farms, the lush grain blowing in the persistent wind, the distant skylines. The expansiveness of the place was almost breath-taking. The heavens enveloped us from horizon to horizon north, south, east, and west. We found ourselves in a world of mystery. The peacefulness of the wide-open spaces helped all of us to relax with each other. In fact, our trip across Kansas was so pleasant that upon our return, we planned carefully so as to make sure that we were able to drive the full length of the state during the daylight hours. We didn’t want to miss any of Kansas.

We were happy that we hadn’t allowed ourselves to get locked into someone else’s viewpoint. Neither did we allow our own ideas about what we would find to limit our experiences. We took our own look. If we hadn’t done that we would have missed the beauty of Kansas.

On your pilgrimage of life, many people will tell you what to expect along the way. What they say may, indeed, be helpful. But beware, because what they say also might keep you from taking another look with your own eyes. Or, it may be that you yourself think that you know everything you’ll find along the way. But not so, my friend. God is still the God of surprises. Even when you think that the journey is nothing but bleak, barren, and hopeless, take another look and remember that the God of surprises gets great pleasure out of bringing delight to your life.

I have three words for this matter of taking another look.

EXPECTATION 

The first is expectation. Expect that God is accomplishing something far more wonderful than all you can ask or imagine. We miss out on so much because our lack of expectation blinds us to the mysteries and miracles of life. I am not talking here about gullibility. I’m not talking about figments of the imagination. What I’m talking about is a general attitude toward life which is open to surprises. Live with expectation.

ACCEPTANCE

The second word is acceptance. The attitude of acceptance does not discount the mysterious and the miraculous when it stares you in the face. When the miraculous healing of Sammy, spoken of earlier, stared Kim Baird, the nurse, in the face, she did not reject it. She allowed it to transform her attitude toward life and toward her patients. It used to be that when, as a pediatrics nurse, she heard parents talking about their “miracle baby” or about the “miracle” which their child had experienced, she ignored it. But now, as a result of her experience with Sammy, she takes such comments seriously. She knows that miracles do sometimes happen. She has come to refer to what she calls “an intangible something” which is at work in human life. She accepts the mystery.

Expectancy; acceptance.

CELEBRATION 

The third word is celebration. When, upon taking another look, you see a divine surprise, then by all means celebrate it.

In church not long ago, I sat behind one of my friends who over the years has not been at all demonstrative in his expression of Christian devotion. In our church, worshippers typically do not lift their hands during the singing. And we say “amens” and “hallelujahs” only when the printed program tells us to say them. But as we were singing praise to God that Sunday morning, I noticed that my friend sang all five stanzas with eyes closed, head turned heavenward, and with his right hand held high. He was the only person in the entire congregation with his hand up.

Obviously, something was going on in his life for which he was grateful. There was no doubt about it, he was in the mode of celebration.

My listening friend, how well are you going at this business of getting on with life? One of the ways to get on with it is to take another look and see what the God of surprises is doing. Remember the three words. Expectancy. Live in expectancy that God can and often does surprise us. Acceptance. When the surprises take place, accept them. Celebration. Your celebration may be what for you is an unusual expression of gratitude in corporate worship. It may be an on-the-spot experience like Kim’s which she describes as “the fluttering of my stomach, the pounding of my heart, the shortness of my breath.” Whatever is authentic for you, go ahead and let it happen. Express your gladness about what God has done and is doing along the way. Take another look at the God of surprises who “is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine.”

PRAYER 

Let us pray:

Gracious Lord, we thank you for grace along the way. As we continue dealing with the challenge of getting on with life, remind us again and again to take another look at what you are doing. Train us to live in expectancy. Move us to accept your surprises. Remind us to celebrate the mysteries and the miracles of life. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.


1 This story is recorded in Susan S. Phillips and Patricia Benner, eds. The Crisis of Care: Affirming and Restoring Caring Practices in the Helping Professions (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1994), pp. 52-55.
2 New Revised Standard version used here and throughout.

Script 2586 (GWS)
July 21, 1996
SERIES: GETTING ON WITH LIFE
3. Taking Another Look
Scripture: Ephesians 3:21-22