Written By Nicole Richardson Bryan
Pastor Dewey’s Note: Nicole’s husband Chris just went through surgery number 41. He was a lineman and was electrocuted with 23,000 volts 3 years ago. He spent 4 1/2 weeks in Augusta, Ga. at Doctors Hospital, lost his right arm, and left thumb and pinky toe on his left foot, Full thickness burns across his chest and some on his arms. Nicole says he never complains and call’s her husband a MIRACLE!
Nicole shares with us………
Standing in the kitchen this evening trying to change the dressings on two chest scar revisions and trying not to allow the sights and smells of stitches, blood, and dressing materials bring back memories I have no desire to recall, I realized how very exhausted from the past three days events I am, how exhausted from the past three years events that I am…that my husband is, that my children are… As I lean over the sink desperately trying to rid my hands of the scent of Xeroform, because it likes to cling for days on anything it touches, I am reminded of how much I hate it but at the same time appreciate it with my whole heart.
Those scents and sights bring back a time of unbelievable trial and change but they also bring back a knowing of God’s great goodness. The type of knowing and understanding that can only come through hardship. The type of trial that Job was able to declare that he had known of God but was now able to know Him personally, to see and feel Him like never before. Sitting in the waiting room yesterday listening to those that came in with all their stories, I was wishing I was anywhere else but at the same time glad to be waiting for easy results instead of the nail biting ones that were a part of our daily routine back when it all started.
So tonight I am not going to so much linger on the smell of Xeroform or the challenge of dressing changes but linger in the thankfulness that Chris is here, that exhaustion is temporary and with every wound that we have to change dressings for, it is just a reminder of life and not death. What a great and merciful God is He who would allow trial, hurt, pain, and exhaustion to draw us closer to Himself and to His love and would teach us of a faithfulness that cannot be learned but in the going inside of and through the wildest tempests of life and surviving.
Not only surviving but winning…. Thankyou God tonight for pain that draws me closer to your heart, for exhaustion that forces me into Your lap to find rest, for times of anxiousness that draw me into the safety of Your tower. For refuge, for love, for strength, for Xeroform, for gauze, for stitches, for waiting rooms, for sights, sounds, and smells that remind me of life….of Your faithfulness to me even when Im not faithful….what a wonderful and amazing and loving Daddy You truly are…
Thank you for sharing Nicole, God Bless you and Chris and your entire family!
Let us pray for Nicole and Chris and their entire family.
As my buddy Don Piper author of 90 minutes in heaven says, “God is still in the miracle making business!”
Proclaim the promises of God my friends, all 3,500 of them in the bible!
We pray continued healing over Chris, in Jesus name Amen!
Thank you so much for sharing our family’s story and allowing God’s praises to be sung. He is more than a miracle, He is evidence of God’s never ending love and compassion for His children. Thank you to each and every person that prays for our little tribe of five and may it be returned a thousand times over in joy and goodness. Be blessed beyond measure.
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