The scan report was clear "hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis". The situation was begging the natural questions, what, how, why? On the one hand our human limitation is to be concerned and explore the natural options and courses of action and none of those were very promising. On the other hand, as a believer and intercessor I knew something more was needed and recognized that such a situation called for us to go down on our knees in prayer.
There is a story in the Gospel of John chapter 9, where Jesus meets a man born blind. His disciples ask him why this man was born blind, was it because he sinned or his parents? Then Jesus replies, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but so that the works of God may be displayed in him. For us as a couple, this would be an opportunity to trust God and allow him to glorify His name. But at a deeper level, it was an opportunity to us for self-examination. What is our attitude to children? Do we accept children unconditionally as a gift from God our heavenly father or do we take for granted the life that God is placing in our care?
This situation brought us to challenge our faith. I felt like Abraham when he was called to offer his only son, Isaac as a sacrifice to God. We resolved to adopt and attitude of faith and surrender in this situation. Faith as a child in our heavenly Father, knowing how if I as a father had a child who needed something, I would be pleased that my child trusts me enough to ask for that need. Surrender to trust God totally in what he wanted to do and would do. The doctors and our own research told us that depending on the quantity of fluid, the child can have pressure in the brain preventing normal growth of tissue.
I needed no reminder because I was already aware. I had a few times earlier visited some differently-abled children's homes and met orphaned children with this condition. In this context, we would like to think that we wouldn't abandon such children. Here was a situation not about abandoning, because that is not an option, but in our hearts accept with the same joy and gratitude the child that God places in our lives. Yet thinking of the kind of suffering and hardship that may be ahead on the road for the child we pleaded with God and shared the prayer intention knowing that many in our community were united with us in our prayer. I thought "God, these children will be born into some family. Instead of letting them be born into families which won't accept them, if you want it to be born into ours, we are open, let your will be done."
Every morning after we said the guardian angel prayer, besides blessing my daughters Sancia and Tanya, I placed my hand over my wife Seema and also over the womb and prayed the Aaronic blessing, and also this prayer "May the life of Christ in all its fullness flow in you". While I prayed and blessed them I was mindful of the power of the life of Christ and the power of those words. When it was time for the next scan, we approached it with faith and expectation.
My prayer now is "who am I God that you have done so much for me and for my family. Let these your works remind me of your love for me and help me to live my life worthy of being your son." This is my wish for myself and for you all, that we praise and glorify God for his amazing works and that we live our lives in a manner worthy of his sons and daughters. God bless you all, Amen.
There is a story in the Gospel of John chapter 9, where Jesus meets a man born blind. His disciples ask him why this man was born blind, was it because he sinned or his parents? Then Jesus replies, neither this man nor his parents sinned, but so that the works of God may be displayed in him. For us as a couple, this would be an opportunity to trust God and allow him to glorify His name. But at a deeper level, it was an opportunity to us for self-examination. What is our attitude to children? Do we accept children unconditionally as a gift from God our heavenly father or do we take for granted the life that God is placing in our care?
This situation brought us to challenge our faith. I felt like Abraham when he was called to offer his only son, Isaac as a sacrifice to God. We resolved to adopt and attitude of faith and surrender in this situation. Faith as a child in our heavenly Father, knowing how if I as a father had a child who needed something, I would be pleased that my child trusts me enough to ask for that need. Surrender to trust God totally in what he wanted to do and would do. The doctors and our own research told us that depending on the quantity of fluid, the child can have pressure in the brain preventing normal growth of tissue.
I needed no reminder because I was already aware. I had a few times earlier visited some differently-abled children's homes and met orphaned children with this condition. In this context, we would like to think that we wouldn't abandon such children. Here was a situation not about abandoning, because that is not an option, but in our hearts accept with the same joy and gratitude the child that God places in our lives. Yet thinking of the kind of suffering and hardship that may be ahead on the road for the child we pleaded with God and shared the prayer intention knowing that many in our community were united with us in our prayer. I thought "God, these children will be born into some family. Instead of letting them be born into families which won't accept them, if you want it to be born into ours, we are open, let your will be done."
Every morning after we said the guardian angel prayer, besides blessing my daughters Sancia and Tanya, I placed my hand over my wife Seema and also over the womb and prayed the Aaronic blessing, and also this prayer "May the life of Christ in all its fullness flow in you". While I prayed and blessed them I was mindful of the power of the life of Christ and the power of those words. When it was time for the next scan, we approached it with faith and expectation.
Two months after the 5th month scans (we did a confirmation scan after the initial scan), due to COVID19, I was not allowed in the scan facility and was waiting in the basement. I started praying and we had already sent prayer requests in our household group. When I called Seema sometime into when I thought the scan may be almost through, she told me the scan doctor was flummoxed by what he saw and size of the ventricles had actually reduced. There was no explanation how this is possible. We know as believers that when the natural can't explain then only the supernatural it has to be. Since then my heart sings the song "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever"
We all know how from the moment of conception, the fetus continuously and rapidly grows. Even Sancia our three-year-old elder daughter can now explain how the baby grows in the womb. Considering that the cells only grow and never shrink, and that the ventricle size actually reduced, I knew that the only possibility, however far-fetched, was that the fluid quantity in the brain somehow reduced in the womb itself. Come June 18th, I was waiting outside the operation theater for delivery. when they brought him out I saw a normal looking boy, praise be to God. The next day we did a MRI scan and consulted doctors with the report. They said there is no need for surgery. The fluid in the brain is still present but in small quantity and not at high pressure so that the brain tissue growth is normal. Compared with what we were prepared for, this has been a complete and powerful miracle in our lives. Recalling back the confirmation scan we did in Srinivasa diagnostic center, considered the best ultrasound scan center in Bangalore. The scan doctor then said to my wife "not good" and gave a very bleak picture and dismal outlook to the situation.
As a software engineer, I often think of difficult technology problems in terms of God's acts of creation and redemption. How much we are amazed by technology, the man made wonders of the concrete urban environment we live in. Yet how great is God's own works, the universe, the laws of physics and the natural order. The way life grows from a single cell, the zygote which has the master program of God, our divine programmer. Each and every cell in our body has the instructions on how every part of the body should be. We live in the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning but we have never come close to creating a single intelligent self-replicating program that grows itself from a tiny cell, and we probably never will. Even whatever marvels we accomplish as humans, we achieve it with the faculties which God created in us. Let's think for a moment which is a greater miracle, God healing the child in the womb or the human person. Surely for a software engineer its not too difficult to fix a bug in a software he has written. A doctor may find it challenging to treat a patient and bring him back to health, but what would a doctor say if asked to create a cell which can grow into a human person?
Psalm 8 composed by David says:
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet:
My prayer now is "who am I God that you have done so much for me and for my family. Let these your works remind me of your love for me and help me to live my life worthy of being your son." This is my wish for myself and for you all, that we praise and glorify God for his amazing works and that we live our lives in a manner worthy of his sons and daughters. God bless you all, Amen.
UPDATE: It's 1½ years since the above post and our little Reuel has regular vision and physio therapy. With the former his binocular vision has been greatly corrected. Earlier he couldn't grasp objects today he's can't stop grabbing toys and examining them. He also communicates beautifully with the sweetest voice calling his dad, mum and siblings too and much more. We hope with physiotherapy he will stand on his feet soon.
