Ambulances and Hospitals

Everything seemed to be normal. I finished teaching two classes, rode the shuttle to the Charleston airport, and ate a bite of supper before the flight to Atlanta. And there is where the problem began. I have eaten hundreds of tuna fish sandwiches in my life, but this one was not going to let me forget it. The catch of the day (or was it the catch of last year?) was sitting heavy on my stomach all the way to the Jackson-Hartsfield airport. Eric, Cheryl, and my three grandsons took me with them to a restaurant on Virginia Avenue. I didn’t eat. I observed, and felt miserable. The next thing I knew an Atlanta City policeman offering explanations of what may have happened. I had passed out and broken into a cold sweat. The officer was trying to reassure me. It was kind, but it didn’t help. I passed out again. My brain needed oxygen. Thankfully, an ambulance came and picked me up. I had wondered what it would be like in the back of one of those fast rides to the hospital. During the next four hours my body was ravaged by all that a case of food poisoning can do. The next day and a half the ice storm of January 2005 was viewed from my hospital window.

Since my siege of sickness you have told me of similar stories of bouts with bad food. Apparently into many lives some food poisoning must come. I think of all the places and things I have eaten and had not experienced any trouble, certainly not like this. It presented me with a first; an ambulance ride to a hospital of someone else’s choosing. But my relatively brief crisis of physical suffering has been a useful instructor. It has given me the opportunity for some lessons in the school of affliction. How fragile our physical well-being is. It can change without much notice. This doesn’t necessarily mean that God is suddenly displeased with us. Among other things it is a jolt of reality. We are mortal. We get sick. We will not die healthy. “But we have this treasure (the gospel of Jesus Christ) in earthen vessels (our frail and fragile human bodies) (2 Cor. 4:7).

I am thankful for the emergency medical help available. If we are going to need an ambulance, we want it to be in the U.S.A. What would we do without nurses? They were there to see if I needed anything, to give counsel, and take vital signs. There is no place like home, but a good nurse can stand in the gap. Think of our missionaries and what they may have to deal with in medical emergencies. Many of us have been in some of those places and our prayers should be much better informed as a result. Loving, helpful, and caring brothers and sisters in Christ are emergency personnel in their own right. Those men who came to me in my weakest moments were God’s representatives in a special way. How does God show us mercy? It is through His servants who clean up our messes.

Thank God for a loving family. In the providence of God, Eric was with me through the early hours of my ordeal. He accompanied me to the hospital, stayed by my side, and slept in a straight backed chair and on the floor in my hospital room. He was sacrificial, thoughtful, and protective. I am blessed. Our circumstances are always under the guiding hand of God. Though Beth was unable to be there, she was eager to come home and be the mercy-giver she has been so often in the past. Her loving and kind ways are evident in Eric and Miriam.

Our church family surrounded me with concern, prayers, help, calls, cards, and visits. A gift of bananas helped me through a day when the need for some nutrition exceeded my appetite. Two men even braved the ice storm to bring me a green plant. I have cherished memories of God’s abundant care through Christ’s body. Where is God in our suffering? One place for sure is His presence in His children.

The last several months seem to have had more than their share of physical infirmities. Funerals, brain surgery, heart by-pass surgery, automobile accidents, and cancer have made their appearance. This is not the way things are supposed to be. Suffering was not a part of paradise. But when Adam and Eve rebelled against God, pain, suffering, and death descended upon creation. Non-Christian world views simply don’t have an adequate answer to the great symphony of sorrows and sighs that plague humanity and nature. There is only one way in which we may set our moral and spiritual compass in the face of evil. It is the cross of Christ and the empty tomb. Ambulances and hospitals should make us thankful for the conquest of evil in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We will all be sick at some time in the future and we will all die. But through it all Christ comforts us by His promises and people and is waiting to receive us into His heavenly presence.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church