An Answered Prayer

"The Lord answered Moses, 'Is the Lord's arm too short?  You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.'"  Numbers 11:23

So there we were, minding our own business on a Thursday night, wandering around out in the pasture. The kids were coming home from the neighbors (they are Hmong, but my kids call them Pong), and my 6YO was climbing the fence into the pasture where I was. I had my back to him, but I heard him hit the ground with a distinctive THWACK!!



Then the screaming began.


I turned around to find him already standing and screaming bloody murder.


“What hurts??” I asked.


“I FELL!!” he screamed.


After several rounds of this same conversation, I finally got “MY ARM!! IT FEELS LIKE I BROKE IT!!”


He should know. It hasn’t been six months since he broke his arm at a birthday party.


I helped him to the bench at the backside of our house, but it did not appear he could move either arm. And his left arm just didn’t look right. Kind of bent or something.


So off we went on that long trail of five miles to the nearest ER for our second 2011 visit.


“This isn’t the room we were in last time,” he noticed.


This room had a TV, and all I can say is Thank God for SpongeBob! He didn’t have sound, but was still able to put my son into a trance in which he cared very little about whatever they were doing to his arms. He had ice packs and pillows and still had not moved either arm voluntarily all through the x-rays.


“Please don’t let both his arms be broken.”


And I began to think of all the accommodations he would need to function with two casts.


Then he said to me, through the silence of his SpongeBob trance, “Hey Mommy, look at this!” and he fully extended his right arm.


Hallelujah! I knew then it wasn’t broken. An answered prayer.


Unfortunately, old Lefty did not fare as well (see above photo). Lefty was also the victim back in the Spring when the fracture was in the elbow from a trampoline at the birthday party. Thank God he’s also right-handed.


Today he got his cast… again. And the orthopedist was surprised to see us… again. I can only assume I’m making his car payment… again.


His right arm was giving him some trouble still today, so the doctor bandaged him up in a splint for it as well, but he doesn’t have to wear it all the time. In fact, he only wore it for a few hours this evening. I’ll be putting it back on at bedtime and the doctor expects him to be out of his cast in three to four weeks.


It may be three to four weeks before I fully recover from the experience too!


Thanks be to God for knowing our thoughts before we think them, and occasionally and very obviously giving us proof that we are indeed heard.