He has also started having more nausea, and he has all but lost his appetite. So, tomorrow he will be having an endoscopy to take some biopsies from his upper GI tract. He is not stoked at all about having to undergo this, but it should show whether or not he is having some Graft vs. Host reactions. This could explain all of his symptoms.
If the biopsies are positive for Graft vs. Host (GVHD) they will give him a higher dose of steroids for a short time, and it will all be better. They told us today that they would have expected him to have much more GVHD at this point, but I'm not surprised. For all of the difficult moments, this adventure, on whole, has really been fairly easy. It is simply God's extreme faithfulness.
For those of you who have not seen my Facebook updates, the last couple of weeks have been challenging. Nick has been out of the hospital; back to the E.R. the same night; back in the hospital; and now he is out. He is certainly better than 2 weeks ago, but we are still awaiting answers.
As I started to write this afternoon, I immediately thought of a specific happening in the Old Testament. King Ahab was married to Jezebel, the nasty queen who's life's mission was to kill the Prophets of God. There had been a drought in the land for 3 years, and the situation was grave. So God told the Prophet Elijah to go and present himself to King Ahab, and He would send rain.
As Elijah was on his way, he ran into Obadiah. He was a faithful believer who worked for Ahab, and had risked everything to save and care for 100 of God's Prophets...even though his boss' wife wanted them dead. When Obadiah saw Elijah, he recognized him immediately. Elijah told Obadiah to go and tell his boss that Elijah wanted to see him, but that was not what Obadiah wanted to hear. I imagine that he just rolled his eyes at Elijah and he basically said,"What have I done wrong? Are you trying to get me killed too? I can't go and tell Ahab that I have talked to you...or had anything to do with you. Who knows where God will send you in the mean time. Then when you are not around, Ahab will kill me dead. Don't you know about those 100 guys I saved?" Obadiah was freaking out, and he knew that this was not going end well. However, Elijah re-assured him, and Obadiah did as he had been told.
I Kings 18 (NIV)
16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab and told him, and Ahab went to meet Elijah. 17 When he saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 “I have not made trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the LORD’s commands and have followed the Baals. 19 Now summon the people from all over Israel to meet me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
So 850 of the false gods prophets showed up, along with countless people from all over Israel. It was surely billed as the show down of the century.
21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”
Elijah told the 850 that they could get started by preparing a sacrifice, and that he would do the same.
24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” 25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it.
The false prophets hooted and hollered, cried and screamed, flailed about and cut themselves until they were nearly bleeding out. Then the Bible says, " there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention." They were awaiting an answer, but it was never going to come. They carried on for the half a day, and Elijah had had enough. He prepared an altar, cut up his sacrifice, and had it drenched with water...just to make sure that the people could see how miraculous it was going to be when God set it on fire.
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “LORD, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD—he is God! The LORD—he is God!”
God had answered powerfully and immediately, but how about that no rain for 3 years thing. After the showdown, Elijah sent his servant to look toward the sea and report back about any rain clouds that he saw. Over and over again the servant came back to report that the sky was as clear as a bell, but Elijah did not give up. He knew that this God that he served was extremely faithful. On the 7th time that the servant went to look, he returned with a report that he saw a cloud about the size of a man's hand. That was all Elijah needed to hear. He immediately sent word to Ahab that he had better head out because the roads were about to get washed away with the torrential rains.
On the same day...same Prophet...same God...One time there was an immediate answer, and one time he had to wait until the 7th time that he believed. Even then, he only saw a tiny improvement across the horizon.
I see improvement, and I still believe.
It is well.
No comments:
Post a Comment