Alan's testimony |
| A
woman in our ward was in a terrible automobile accident last summer. Her
neck and back were broken, and he doctors really expected that she would be
paralyzed for life from the neck or mid-chest down. But, she was given a
blessing that she would recover in some important ways. She under went
surgery on her spinal column, and for a long time afterward wore a halo
cast. She has slowly regained motor-skill functioning, and now is able to
come to church with two canes. She can go up stairs and actually has pretty
good use of her hands, although not complete. I looked at her Sunday, and
felt I should go up to her and tell her how much joy it gave me to see her
at church--a witness to me of a modern-day miracle. The witnessing of her miracle is interesting to me because her miracle is different from the way miracles are portrayed in the Bible. It wasn't sudden; it wasn't complete. She is still more hampered than she was before the accident. But, yet, in my heart, the Spirit witnessed to me on that day, as it has on other occasions when I have looked at her, that she was incredibly blessed in her recovery. It is a miracle, regardless of the time span involved, regardless of the fact that it wasn't all at once, or that it stil isn't complete, or even that it may never be complete. I am just now making the connection with my own situation. The miracle of my recovery may take a long time. It may be gradual. It may not ever take me to a point I think I really want to be in terms of no homosexual desires at all, and no remnants of homosexual thoughts ever. Even straight people have inappropriate thoughts, don't they? But that doesn't mean that the miracle won't happen in other ways that can be just as wonderful. And, whatever faith and effort it takes to bring about the miracle -- whatever that miracle may mean in my life -- will be worth it. (Published in "Journey," Volume 4, Number 4, July/August 1994, page 2.) |