By Xiaoxue
It was a hot day in summer when cicadas were chirping tirelessly. The sun in the afternoon was burning the ground, making people feel unbearably hot.
Yutong sat silently before the window as if in thought. Then the laughter of the children playing outside interrupted her thought. Seeing those children playing, she couldn’t help thinking of a summer night several years ago which she would never forget all her life.
That day, Yutong prepared the dinner for her husband and kid as usual. After dinner, her husband was chatting with his friends online with mobile phone; her five-year-old daughter Xinxin was watching her favorite cartoon, and Yutong was doing household chores while humming the hymn of God’s word. Simple and plain though their life was, they felt full and warm. However, a misfortune was impending over them step by step.
At about 9 PM, Yutong went to bed with her daughter. Not knowing how long had passed, she was suddenly roused by the sounds beside her. By moonlight, she saw her daughter rising from the bed suddenly. Yutong promptly asked her husband to turn on the light, only to find that her daughter was sticking her fingers down her throat as if to tear it, walking up and down on the bed painfully. It was already eleven o’clock. Yutong immediately approached her daughter, shaking her gently by the shoulders and saying: “Xinxin, what’s wrong? Tell mummy; speak to mummy!” Yet her daughter released herself from her clutches, got off the bed, and walked straight toward the living room. Completely scared by all her abnormal actions, Yutong ran with bare feet to take her back in her arms, asking with a tearful voice: “Where are you going? You are scaring me.” But her daughter looked glassy-eyed and only said a few words out of her mouth with all her strength: “I want to get injected.” Her voice was so weak that it could hardly be heard without holding the breath, and it seemed that she was almost suffocated. Yutong hold her daughter tightly in her arms. Although she didn’t know what illness her daughter got, she could feel how pained she was at that time, for what her daughter feared most was getting injected, but today she actually … Moreover, what pierced her heart was that while her beloved daughter was suffering torment, she could do nothing but see that helplessly.
Her husband had already made several calls to the doctor, but no one answered. Then he took his clothes and went straight to fetch the doctor. Yutong was nearly paralyzed to the ground, only crying to God repeatedly in her heart: “Oh, God! Please lead me.” Keeping crying to God, she came to calm down a little, and then she thought of Almighty God’s words: “Who of the whole of mankind is not cared for in the eyes of the Almighty? Who does not live in the midst of the Almighty’s predestination? Whose birth and death come from their own choices? Does man control his own fate? Many people cry out for death, yet it is far away from them; many people want to be those who are strong in life and fear death, yet unbeknownst to them, the day of their demise draws near, plunging them into the abyss of death” (“The Eleventh Utterance”). Yutong knew clearly that man’s life and death are in God’s hands, so the only thing she could do was put her daughter into His hands. At this thought, Yutong put her dying daughter on the sofa and then knelt to the ground, praying to God with a strangled cry: “Oh, Almighty God! I love my kid so much but I find that no matter how deep I love her or how much money I have, I can do nothing to help her when she faces the threat of death. Oh, God! Man’s life and death are in Your hands. I only desire to commit my daughter into Your hands. Whether she will live or die, I am willing to obey to Your orchestration and arrangement.”
After praying, Yutong gradually calmed down. Looking at the time, she found that nearly twenty minutes had passed since her husband went out, yet he still didn’t come back. Yutong sat on the sofa, holding her daughter in her arms tightly and waiting anxiously. When she found that it turned harder and harder for her daughter to breathe, her heart tightened once again. Staring at the needle’s moving around with the clock ticking, she felt that the time passed so slowly as if frozen, and she had no choice but to pray to God in her heart again and again. By praying, she felt that God was right at her side and He was controlling everything. “If this little girl is preordained by God to be my daughter, nothing can take her away from me; if our mother-daughter relationship reaches its end, how can I maintain it?” At this thought, Yutong calmed down gradually.
With a creak, the door was pushed open by someone gently, and then Yutong heard hurried footsteps. It was the doctor. After a short exam, the doctor shook his head, saying: “You’d better take her to the large hospital immediately, because her heartbeats are very weak, which means her condition is very serious and doesn’t allow any delay; I cannot confirm the diagnosis now, so I don’t dare to prescribe medicine.” Yutong looked at her husband and then the time. She thought: The large hospital is 20 to 25 kilometers away from here. And as it is already half past eleven late at night, there are not any buses. Besides, my daughter often gets carsick, and even a few miles’ driving could make her vomit violently; regrading her poor condition now, how can she endure such a long trip? Yutong and her husband knew that the reason why the doctor didn’t dare to treat their daughter was that he was afraid to take on the responsibility if something went wrong. Then Yutong made a prayer to God in her heart and then said to the doctor firmly: “Please treat her. We will take all the responsibilities.” The doctor hesitated and then said: “OK, I will fetch the medicine.”
Due to the hard breath, the kid’s face turned paler and her limbs grew cold gradually. So Yutong and her husband kept rubbing her limbs. After a while, the doctor came back with the medicine. At that moment, Yutong and her husband seemed to see the hope. However, the doctor’s words made Yutong’s heart sink again. The doctor said: “I’ve just searched some information on the internet. Just try this medicine. I will inject her half a dose first; if it doesn’t work, then I have no other way and you must immediately take her to the hospital by then.” Yutong knew clearly in her heart that what the doctor could do was just as this, and that it would be too late to send her daughter to the hospital if he failed. “My daughter’s life is in Your hands, so I’m willing to let You orchestrate and arrange her life and death.” Yutong kept praying to God in her heart.
At that moment, Yutong suddenly understood that man’s life is so short and fragile that it cannot withstand a single blow and that death could come unexpectedly at any time. In front of death, aren’t the fortune, fame, and status which we pursue every day meaningless? Isn’t the love among people useless? No matter how deeply parents love their children, when their children are faced with sickness and death, their love turns helpless and weak. It cannot relieve any pains of their children at all, much less make them live a little bit longer; and they even cannot endure the sufferings in place of their children. At that moment, Yutong felt deeply that only God can protect us from danger and lead us to get through various hardships; only He can give us support and comfort when we feel painful and helpless; only He can direct the way for us when we have no way out; only He can give us hope when we are in despair; and only He is the foundation of our existence. Yutong couldn’t imagine how she should face such a thing happening to her if she didn’t believe in God and had never read God’s word. How pained and helpless would she be if she had no God’s guidance and leading? As God’s words say: “Without My existence, mankind will only perish and undergo the scourge of calamities. No human being will ever again see the beauteous sun and moon or the green world; mankind shall encounter only the frigid night and the inexorable valley of the shadow of death. I am mankind’s only salvation. I am mankind’s only hope and, even more, I am He on whom the existence of all mankind rests” (“You Ought to Prepare a Sufficiency of Good Deeds for Your Destination”). Pondering over God’s words silently, Yutong felt that God was so kind and close. Looking at her daughter, she became assured and relieved.
About twenty minutes later since Xinxin got injected, a miracle happened: Her breath turned steady and her face restored its color gradually, and her limbs were not so cold. Seeing this, the doctor was very joyful and immediately injected the other half dose to her. Finally she was saved.
The summer night restored its usual peace. When Yutong looked at her sleeping kid, various emotions crowded in on her. She knew clearly that it was God’s wonderful deeds that saved her daughter from the jaws of death. And she became more certain that man’s fate is in the Creator’s hands, and that no matter how deeply she loves her daughter, she cannot control her fate. As God’s words say: “The fate of man is controlled by the hands of God. You are incapable of controlling yourself: Despite always rushing and busying about for himself, man remains incapable of controlling himself. If you could know your own prospects, if you could control your own fate, would you still be a creature?” (“Restoring the Normal Life of Man and Taking Him to a Wonderful Destination”). She finally knew the meaning of these words. She appreciated profoundly that it was the wisest choice to commit her family and herself into God’s hands.
The next morning, the sun was still so bright and shining. Yutong looked at her sleeping daughter and felt as if what happened the night before were just a dream. But seeing the medicine bottle on the table, she knew it wasn’t a dream but a fact; it was even more a true experience that made her spirit awake, and a special experience which made her examine anew the value of life.
Afterward, the doctor, having a lingering fear, said to Yutong: “Xinxin is so lucky. She suffered from the acute laryngeal edema, which tends to happen to children. Due to its quick attack, many children often have been suffocated to death before being treated. Every year there are many children dying of this disease. Xinxin is very lucky, for you found her abnormality in time.” Yutong knew clearly that it was not because of her daughter’s fortune or her prompt discovery, but because of God’s deeds. This experience made her heart of depending on and looking to God grow stronger, and increased her faith in God. She truly felt that God is keeping and protecting man and leading man every moment, and that He is right at everyone’s side. Moreover, she had a firmer belief in such words of God: “Man’s life originates from God, the existence of the heaven is because of God, and the existence of the earth stems from the power of God’s life. No object possessed of vitality can transcend the sovereignty of God, and no thing with vigor can break away from the ambit of God’s authority” (“Only Christ of the Last Days Can Give Man the Way of Eternal Life”).
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