Meredith's Miracle by Bryan Craig
And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.” And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. Mark 7:34-35
If you know me, you know that I’m a big advocate of Journaling. I believe we, like the early disciples, are eyewitnesses to God’s amazing work on a daily basis, and we need to write down what we are seeing. If nothing else, it is a spiritual legacy to hand down to our families, but I believe our testimonies are powerful, and they help others to be encouraged and strengthened in their faith. Furthermore, as it speaks in Revelation 12:11, the Devil was defeated by the blood of the Lamb and by the “word of their testimony”, so I have no doubt the enemy wants us to keep quiet about God’s testimony in our lives and I don’t want to keep quiet!
So I want to praise God and give Him glory as I proclaim a miracle we witnessed last week in regards to my daughter Meredith. First, let me say that I went through a 7-year Sifting period, full of many difficult life events that stretched me and melted my heart, as God was preparing me for my current role with Influencers. We talk about Sifting in The Journey, and I’ve experienced it. I have four daughters, and Meredith is my youngest. She was born to us a little later in life, but her birth happened to coincide with the beginning of my sifting period. I think God knew we would need the extreme joy that Meredith brought us in the midst of our suffering, for she has truly brought that into our lives.
Seven years ago, when Meredith was only 7, we moved to Northwest Arkansas for me to begin my full-time work with Influencers. A few years in, when Meredith was 9, her pediatrician had some concerns about her blood pressure. At first, they thought it was “White Coat Syndrome” where people get so nervous at the doctor that their BP gets elevated. But it was so consistently high that they ordered tests at the Children’s Hospital. After an Ultrasound, a CT Scan and an Echocardiogram and other tests, we discovered Meredith had a birth defect we never knew about. It was called Renal Artery Stenosis, which is a narrowing of the artery from her heart to one of her kidneys. We could clearly see the narrowing on the pictures they showed us, and we could see the back pressure it was creating and the fact that her right kidney, which was not getting full blood flow, was smaller than the left one. They said there was nothing they could do about it, other than to control her blood pressure with medication to make sure her organs did not get damaged, and that, perhaps, when she was older, they might be able to do a balloon surgery to expand the artery. What! This was our baby girl!
We decided to get a second opinion in Kansas City. They ran all the same tests and concluded that Arkansas Children’s Hospital was 100% correct in their diagnosis. However, this doctor was even harsher, saying this would most likely get worse, and she may have to be on multiple blood pressure medicines to control it. We left there feeling rather defeated, but we totally believed God had the final word on Meredith’s health. We began to pray regularly for Meredith’s healing.
At one point, Missy came to me, and she said God gave her the words to pray. She said she felt like He told her to pray, “Open and Flow”. It was simple and memorable, and she loved it because she noted that Jesus often just said one word to someone and they were healed. So, I joined her in praying this. Then, I was reading a book, Whisper, by Mark Batterson, and he talks about being born with Asthma and suffering from it his whole childhood. The Elders at the church had prayed over him, but the Asthma endured. As an adult, one day, he was challenging his congregation to pray “the bravest prayer they have ever prayed.” By his definition, this was something that you may have prayed 100 times, but you will pray it one more time. It was asking for something that you know ONLY God could do. A miracle.
Mark took his own advice and prayed one more time for his Asthma to be healed. This time, he thought something actually happened, but he wasn’t sure. He asked God to confirm it with a word from His Word. God did it! He gave him the word, “Ephphatha” which is from Mark 7:34, where Jesus spoke this word over a deaf man. It means “Be opened”. As Mark describes this, I was floored because this lined up with Missy’s prayer about “opening” Meredith’s artery. I told Missy about this, and we both started using this Aramaic word we never knew before in our prayers over Meredith. We also shared this with others. “Ephphatha”…pronounced (ĕfˈu thuh) was the Word we stood upon.
Nothing seemingly changed for a few years, and thankfully, Meredith’s physical activity was not hindered much, and she was not too concerned about her diagnosis. However, another concern arose. Meredith’s growth was stunted. Her growth chart seemed to indicate this all started when the blood pressure medicine started. Missy, who is so good about researching things and not always taking doctor’s words as gospel, remembered one Nephrologist talking about how if Meredith ever got pregnant later in life, she would need to get off Lisinopril, one of the BP medicines she was taking. Missy did some checking and it said Lisinopril taken by a pregnant woman can stunt the growth of the fetus. And by the way, they had very little data regarding children on this drug, which made it more difficult to determine. But Missy shared her concerns with an Endocrinologist, and the decision was made to take her off this blood pressure medicine, with the concern the lighter dose of a different medicine might not work.
Well, this was the first sign that God was up to something with Meredith. The step of faith to take her of Lisinopril was rewarded as Meredith started growing. The Endocrinologist was amazed. It was clear to Missy and I that God was guiding us. As Meredith went back to school last fall, she noticed that she had grown and even some of her friends had commented. This was encouraging to her.
At the beginning of January, Meredith decided she would have a “word” for the year. Missy and I have done this the past few years. We ask God for a word that will be our anchor for the year. Meredith has witnessed us doing this and she told Missy her word was “Health”. This was interesting, since we had not really talked much about the Stenosis in quite a while. And I think she felt it meant more than just physical health, but also spiritual and emotional. By the way, she’s pretty mature and wise for a 14 year old, if you couldn’t tell by this.
Then, a few weeks ago, we had her first Ultrasound since the first one 5 years ago which uncovered her issue. I went with Missy to the appointment with the Nephrologist to go over the results. But before that, I looked at the results they posted on Meredith’s account on-line. I told Missy that I thought I read that everything looked normal, but I wasn’t sure. The doctor talked to us, and she seemed a little uncomfortable as she tried to explain the results. She kept saying that the main artery was “Patent”, a term we had never heard. But what I had read was correct. Everything was functioning normally. Full blood flow had been restored in the artery and her right kidney had grown. And also, she confirmed that Meredith had grown 4 inches since her last checkup. It was one of those moments when a doctor cannot explain what happened because IT WAS A MIRACLE!
After the appointment, Missy and I looked up the word “patent”, the word the doctor used to describe Meredith’s main artery to the kidney. The word “patent” in medical terms means “OPEN, UNOBSTRUCTED”. The very Word we had been praying for 5 years, the doctor pronounced back to us. This was truly amazing, and we are still in a bit of shock, though I know we shouldn’t be. God still does miracles. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) so the same Jesus who did miracles we read about in the Bible, still works through His Spirit, through our Prayers, to answer the bravest prayers we can pray!
As you read this, I pray “Ephphatha” over YOU, that you might BE OPEN to all that God has for you to discover, His love, His blessings, His healing, His power, His will.
In the mighty name of Jesus, Amen.