By Wang Dan, China
My mother-in-law often preached the gospel to me and exhorted me to believe in God and worship Him. In order to get on well with her, I agreed with her reluctantly. Nonetheless, I only regarded belief in God as a faith. For every gathering, either I skimped it or I shirked it by saying I busied myself with work. If I actually couldn’t avoid it, I would attend a gathering unwillingly. I usually didn’t read God’s words actively. Even though I didn’t know God, He still didn’t forsake me and was merciful toward me. Through a special experience, I really received God’s great grace and blessings and also gained new knowledge of God. … From my practical experience, I had proof that belief in God is not simply a faith, because He is not vague but practical. He is right by our side.
I Got A Prenatal Phobia
My expected date of confinement was coming soon. One day, I went to buy some necessities for my baby in me in the mother and baby shop where one of my classmates worked. She told me that her colleague bore a daughter a few days before, but it was a stillborn baby. Before the mother entered into the delivery room, everything about the foetus was still normal including its heartbeat…. After hearing this news, I felt afraid and began to worry about my baby very much. When the countdown to my delivery had begun, I couldn’t sleep well for several consecutive days, always fearing there would be something wrong with my foetus all of a sudden when I slept. My husband comforted me and told me that I needn’t to get thoughts into my mind and that our baby would be all right. Because of this, we consulted the doctor and she said that many mothers had these thoughts before they bore children and that there was no need for me to worry. But my thoughts still ran away with me. Later on, my mother-in-law saw I had some things on my mind and then asked me, “Why have you seemed to have something weighing heavily on your mind for several days? The Bible says, ‘Rejoice ever more. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks.’ Do you forget it? As long as our hearts don’t leave God, and we pray to Him and entrust our difficulties to the hands of Him, then He will give us the feeling of peace and security. If you’re in a good mood, it will benefit your baby.” Afterward, she read a passage of God’s words with me, “Be quiet within Me, for I am your God, your only Redeemer. You must quiet your hearts at all times, live within Me; I am your Rock, your Backer. Have no other mind, but wholeheartedly lean on Me and I will certainly appear to you—I am your God!” Through reading these words and listening to her soothing words, my heart gradually calmed a bit; I felt there wasn’t too much pressure; suddenly, I felt much better emotionally.
The Adventure in the Delivery Room
Soon, my delivery date came. When I was wheeled into the delivery room, my belly ached so much that the sweat flowed down my cheeks. I groaned with clenched teeth. As the labor pains quickened, I felt so painful that I didn’t have any strength all over. After I entered into the delivery room, the doctors encouraged me to exert my strength to cooperate all the time. Yet I was so painful that I had no strength to cooperate with the doctor. Later, the doctor urged, “Quickly exert your strength. Now the fetal heart rate isn’t normal. If he still can’t come out, he will be lacking of oxygen.” Hearing him say this, my heart sank and I thought to myself: The fetal heart rate is abnormal. What can I do? I should use more strength and cooperate with the doctor. But I’m not really able to do so. The doctor who was delivering my baby said, “Give her an oxytocin injection, or else the baby will be in danger.” At that time, I felt painful and worried, and I comforted myself and my baby in my heart, “Oh, my baby, come on. I’ll do my utmost, too.” However, the labor pains which came per two minutes was unbearable to me. So I began to give a groan with pain. Seeing this, the doctor encouraged me, “If you want to be delivered of a healthy baby, then you should keep at it. Otherwise the baby won’t be safe. You should exert more strength quickly.” After hearing the doctor say this, I was more worried and thought: Will my baby be like the baby that I heard of last time? The baby came out but died…. I no longer dared to continue thinking about this thing. I wanted to bear a healthy baby. Nevertheless, I truly didn’t have any strength. At that time, I genuinely wanted the Savior to save me, help me or at least relieve my pain. If so, I would have strength to give birth to my baby. Suddenly, I thought of what my mother-in-law said, “God is almighty. As long as you truly believe in and rely on Him, He will help you get through the difficulties.” Then I cried out to God in my heart, “Oh, God! I feel a lot of pain. I have no strength at all. I beg You to help me and grant me strength. You are my reliance. Please help me get through the difficulties.” After I finished praying, all of a sudden, I no longer felt much pain, and unknowingly I had some strength. Then I used all my strength and heard the crying of my baby. My baby came out! In spite of the pain of my cut, I urgently drew myself up to see my baby. Seeing his round face, I felt so happy! I sincerely thanked God! It was God who granted me strength, so that I could smoothly bear my son. Then the doctor said, “Congratulations! You delivered a boy.”
The Peril After Joy
Several seconds passed, the doctor suddenly said, “There is something wrong with the baby. He no longer cries, and he looks bad.” Then she told the nurses, “Quickly deal with the baby’s umbilical cord well and rescue him! His skin color is also abnormal.” When I heard her words, I was at a loss. I thought: Just now, when I saw my son, wasn’t he still fine? What is this? Shouldn’t anything happen to him? My heart was tightened, and I watched my son nervously. The doctor inverted him, held his feet in one hand, and slapped him in the buttocks with the other hand, but he didn’t have any type of response. Then the doctor made him lie on his back and pressed on his chest—doing CPR on him. Immediately, everyone stared at the doctor and the air in the delivery room seemed to congeal. Seeing the serious and tense expressions of the doctors and nurses, I had my heart in my mouth. Another nurse used her hands to press something looking like alveoli, one end of which was put into my son’s nose—giving him an urgent supply of oxygen. However, he still had no response at all, and his body became increasingly purple. The doctor and nurses’ emergency treatment didn’t work. My son still didn’t move or cry as if he had been dead. As I saw this, my tears started falling out of my eyes.
At the moment, the doctor became anxious. She repeatedly asked the nurses to hurriedly call the doctor-in-charge and anesthetist of the pediatrics department and allow them to hurry to rescue my son. All the medical staff present had tried to rescue my son, but he still had no response. All the people had no idea what to do and were all very anxious. I was especially worried and thought: Before I bore my son, he had been examined for many times, and there were no problems with him; before I came into the maternity ward, he was also given an examination about the heartbeat, and the test result showed nothing wrong; when he was born just now, he was still fine. But now how does he become like this? What should I do?
Then I saw the doctor patted my son on the cheeks, and his face was turned around to me. My bed was only one meter far from his. At the moment he and I were face to face. I saw clearly that he was lying there, but he wasn’t moving. His whole body became purple and he closed his eyes as if he had been dead, which scared me so much that my heart pounded. I felt frightened and thought to myself: Is my son not alive? Now even the doctor can’t save him. Even though I love him very much, I’m even less capable of saving him. Is that the case that nobody can save him? When I thought of this, I felt very pained as if a knife twisted in my heart and my tears flowed continuously. I wondered what I should do.
The time passed one second and one minute at a time, but my son’s life was still in imminent peril. I cried out in my heart: Who can save my son? Just when I was at my wits end, I suddenly thought of the God’s words that my mother-in-law usually read to me, “That is to say, God has had a responsibility toward man since the moment He created him. What is His responsibility? He has to protect man, to look after man. He hopes man can trust and obey His words. This is also God’s first expectation of man.” “Any and all things, living or dead, will shift, change, renew, and disappear according to God’s thoughts. This is how God rules over all things.”
Recalling the above words of God, I hurried to pray to God, “God! Please save my son. His life has been in imminent peril. The doctor cannot save his life and I can only earnestly beg You to save him. I believe his life is in Your hands. Oh, God! I’m willing to submit to Your sovereignty and arrangements, no matter whether he can survive or not. I’m willing to obey You, since I’ve seen Your deeds, it is You who has given me strength to be delivered of my son, and the doctor and I can do nothing….”
Having prayed to God, I eagerly opened my eyes wide to watch my son. Then I saw he actually opened his eyes and looked at me, his skin color’s coming back slowly, and his hands and feet started to move. At that moment, I was in ecstasy. I was so emotionally stirred that I burst into tears, and my heart was incomparably sweet. I knew this was God’s great power. It was God that listened to my prayers and saved my son. I prayed to God silently in my heart, “God! I’ve seen Your great power and known our lives all come from You. Oh, God, in the past I was so rebellious. I had no genuine belief in You. I wasn’t always serious about believing in God. I regarded Your words and work as stories. Oh, God! Yet the way You treat me isn’t based on my disobedience. Just when my son was in perilous circumstances, You listened to my prayers and allowed him to survive. Thank You for saving him. Oh, God! From now on I’m willing to truly believe in You.”
At that moment, the doctor said to me, “The baby is all right. Now he is able to breathe by himself.” Then the doctor-in-charge of the pediatrics department ran into the delivery room. Seeing my son moving his little feet nimbly, he said, “The baby is okay now, but just now you were so urgent on the phone and what you said was so terrible.” I knew the reason that my son could survive was because of God’s wondrous deeds. Even though the doctor had super-duper medical skill and ability, he still couldn’t give my son life. When I prayed to God, it was God who allowed my son to survive, saved him and gave him the second life.
After my cut was well dealt with, my son and I were wheeled into the pre-delivery room to be given injections of anti-inflammatory. When seeing my mother and husband, I couldn’t help shedding tears and choked, “The baby has just been in great danger. I was terrified out of my wits.” Before I finished my words, the doctor said to them, “The baby is so lucky. When he was born, he cried but suddenly stopped crying. Because of being lacking of oxygen, his whole body turned purple. Now he’s all right. But you family members should pay attention to the baby all the time in case he chokes. If you find there is something wrong with him, inform the doctor at once.” That night, when my mother-in-law came to the hospital to see me, I told her my experience of bearing my son. She nodded repeatedly and said, “Thank God! This baby was bestowed upon us by God.” We were both thankful to God within for His grace and blessings.
Joy after a Narrow Escape
After the baby was one-month old, I read God’s words together with my mother-in-law at home, “Until, one day, you will feel that the Creator is no longer a riddle, that the Creator has never been hidden from you, that the Creator has never concealed His face from you, that the Creator is not at all far from you, that the Creator is no longer the One that you constantly long for in your thoughts but that you cannot reach with your feelings, that He is really and truly standing guard to your left and right, supplying your life, and controlling your destiny. He is not on the remote horizon, nor has He secreted Himself high up in the clouds. He is right by your side, presiding over your all, He is everything that you have, and He is the only thing you have. Such a God allows you to love Him from the heart, cling to Him, hold Him close, admire Him, fear to lose Him, and be unwilling to renounce Him any longer, disobey Him any longer, or any longer to evade Him or put Him at a distance. All you want is to care for Him, obey Him, requite all that He gives you, and surrender to His dominion. You no longer refuse to be guided, supplied, watched over, and kept by Him, no longer refuse what He dictates and ordains for you. All you want is to follow Him, walk alongside Him to His left or right, all you want is to accept Him as your one and only life, to accept Him as your one and only Lord, your one and only God.”
Having finished reading God’s words, I recalled the scenes that happened in the delivery room. I confirmed that God really exists and realized: God is genuinely by my side, and is my only reliance and my sole Lord. The doctor used all sorts of medical instruments only to treat my baby, but couldn’t decide his birth and death; my mother, my mother-in-law, my husband and I all couldn’t save my son; only God could give my son breath and allow him to have an opportunity to survive. God is so almighty. Thank God! Before, I only thought of believing in God as a kind of belief, and I had no knowledge of Him, nor could I believe in and trust Him. With this experience, I felt, in a very realistic manner, God at my side protecting and watching over me. He is not vague but practically exists. Though we can’t see or touch Him, as long as we worship Him with heart and with honesty, we can see His wonderful deeds and His true existence. I will believe in God properly and repay His love for me. All the glory be to God!
