Musings from Graceland

THOSE LITTLE FEET HAD NEVER WALKED

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From the Children's Cup "40 Days of Prayer for the Children" website:
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He was sitting there in the doorway of his humble home. He smiled really big when I stopped by to say hello to him and take his picture. His mother told me he had never walked, that he was born with something wrong with his feet. I think he is about six or seven years old.

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I quickly spoke with the mother, patted the little boy, and went on to the CarePoint down the road, where Children’s Cup was holding a clinic with Dr. Beyda and his team.

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When I arrived at the clinic, something in the back of my mind kept nagging me. Not bothering to concentrate on what it was, I began chatting with the patients and the visiting medical staff. I took some pictures of the kids and moms. I loved on one of the teachers and encouraged her with some verses from the Word.

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The little nag was still there.

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After about an hour, however, we were hurried on to the car because we were leaving the country to return to the States. The time had come to go.

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As we carefully stepped over the ruts in the dirt road and around the trash that littered between, I glanced at the little house where the crippled boy lives. He wasn’t in the doorway.

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As I stepped onto the plane and settled into my seat, I took a deep breath. And that silent nag came back. This time I figured out what it was.

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“Why didn’t you pray for that little guy?”

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As we taxied down the runway in Matsapha, I recalled an incident when I was a kid. The family attended a special meeting with an evangelist who prayed for the sick and many of them were healed.

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We sat in the balcony. I was about eight years old.

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The long line of sick people zigzagged its way from the stage, down the steps, and into the aisles. A young mother and father stood there with a little boy in their arms. When the minister asked the need, they told how their son, about 3 years old, was born with club feet, and that he’d never walked.

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Carefully placing the child on the edge of the stage so that his twisted feet were visible to the audience, the minister knelt beside the boy and prayed. Not a loud and demanding prayer, just a simple prayer, asking Jesus to touch and heal him.

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I watched closely. I didn’t even close my eyes to pray. And I saw it happen. With my own eyes I saw it. Those little feet twisted themselves back into a normal position. I saw it!

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Of course, so did the audience, who began shouting praises to the Lord.

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Then the minister lifted the boy to his feet, the ones he’d never walked on, and the child took off running across the stage - back and forth, back and forth.

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His mom and dad stood there and cried. The audience went wild with praising God.

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I stook there wondering if that was what it was like when Jesus touched and healed the crippled ones when he was on the earth.

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Suddenly my attention was drawn back to the plane ride from Swaziland to Johannesburg. We were ready to land.

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But my mind can’t forget that boy in the doorway in Swaziland.

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When I go back, I hope to find him. And I will pray for him. I don’t know what will happen. I just know I’m not the healer, Jesus is. If he’s asking me to pray for the little crippled feet to be healed, I will be obedient. I know God can do anything.

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But like the man who went to Jesus to heal his daughter said, “Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief.”

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I will pray for him. What will God do?

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Thanks for praying today. Feel free to leave a comment with a prayer or thought you would like to add. And if you haven’t signed up yet, send an email to pray@childrenscup.org

and let them know you’re praying.

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