We've come this far by
faith,
leaning on the Lord,
trusting in His holy
word,
He’s never failed me
yet.
Oh, can’t turn around,
we've come this far by
faith.
Lyrics by Carlton Pearson
I was
cleaning out Malachi’s bedroom closet the other day when I ran across a home
video; it was a video diary that my family and I made twelve years ago
entitled, A Day in the Life of Malachi. We created the video for a fundraiser benefit
for Malachi; our friends and family graciously planned a fundraiser event on our
behalf to assist our family in purchasing a mini-van to transport Malachi, his
nurse and all of his life-saving equipment to medical appointments and family
outings. The video was our way of
sharing with our friends and family our unique challenges and the impact of Spinal
Muscular Atrophy (SMA) on our family life.
Seeing that video again was awe-inspiring for me; it reminded me of how
far we've come as a family and how far we've come in our faith.
My two boys
are 16 and 14 now, but in the video, they were just little guys – Joshua was 4
and Malachi was 2. As I watched the
video, I reflected on our family’s journey. I remember our rocky beginning – the shocking
details of the diagnosis, the fragility of Malachi’s life, having to learn his
life-sustaining care, the constant influx of nurses in and out of our home and the
search to purchase a home so that we could bring Malachi home from the
hospital. The doctors’ prognosis for
Malachi was two years of life. TWO YEARS
OF LIFE! It all seemed surreal. We were devastated – and scared. Scared of the responsibility of his care and
scared that the burden would tear our family apart. Our feelings were as fragile as our faith; we
experienced emotional highs and lows as we learned how to replace the fear and
doubt with love and faith. Prior to
that moment, we thought we knew what it meant to be faith-filled, but our faith hadn't truly been tested. That was in
the beginning…
As time marched on, the burden of Malachi’s care
intensified and how we practiced our faith intensified as well. Malachi triumphed over medical trials and we began
to share his story and testimony to anyone who would listen! We ministered to other couples who were
facing similar struggles with their ill child.
We focused on the good parts of our life rather than our woes and
limitations and encouraged others to stand in that grace as well. As I watched the video, I smiled and marveled
at the resilience of my family. Together,
we weathered many storms, but those storms didn't overtake us because we were
standing on a solid foundation that God was with us through it all, no matter
what.
Medical
science predicted that Malachi would not live past the age of two and now he is
an endearing, bossy little teenager! Due
to the severity of Malachi’s diagnosis, the odds were stacked against my
marriage and my family remaining intact, however, today we remain an intact
family. The naysayers would have you
believe that the challenges my family endured would cause us to be bitter and
broken. But for the grace of our loving and sovereign
God, we are more resilient and faith-filled than ever before! Indeed, we've come this far – a mighty long
way, by faith. We started out with
mustard seed faith and over trials and time, God grew our faith BIGGER. You can’t see that transition in our home
video, but then again, faith is not about seeing, it is a knowing.
“Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.” Hebrews 11:1
