The next day, after having rested, KAB called a meeting with everyone. He wanted to share with us what had happened to Kiki on the flight to Salt Lake City. We were all very anxious for news.
I don't remember how KAB told us, how can you possibly begin to tell such news? I think he started with a recap of the accident and Kiki's injuries, then the flight to Salt Lake.
You see, on that flight somewhere in the air between Rock Springs, Wyoming and Salt Lake City, Utah something happened. God chose to heal Kiki!
When Kiki arrived at the hospital in Salt Lake City there was nothing wrong with her, other than a few minor scratches and bruises. They were unable to draw any fluid from her lungs, she had no broken bones, no cracked ribs, no injured vertebrae, no head trauma. In fact, shortly after arriving, Kiki had regained consciousness. She recognized her mom without hesitation and was excited to be in Salt Lake because she remembered they had friends there. There was not even a hint of any brain damage. The hospital in Salt Lake ran all the tests again, took all the x-rays and called the hospital in Rock Springs to tell them that they had sent the wrong patient. No, the doctor in Rock Springs argued, he had put her in the helicopter himself!
KAB had known before we left Rock Springs what had happened. He didn't believe it. When we stopped in Salt Lake City at the hospital, it was for him to go see for himself that Kiki was not only alive, but well. It was true!
Our choir tour went on as planned. We had an incredible story to share. Then we headed home. A week after we left, we were back home in our own church doing a homecoming concert. As he had done at every concert, KAB told the story of the accident and the miracle. Only this time, Kiki walked down the aisle and stood on the altar for all to see. She still had scrapes along her arms and her skin was ashen grey from being without oxygen for so long, but she was very much alive. I wept. You see, I had known Kiki and her brother for four years. I babysat them frequently. I loved them. I wept for joy!
I cannot tell you why God chose to heal Kiki. Was it because of the fervent prayer of a 13 year old young Christian girl who needed her faith established in a miracle-working God? Was it because a doctor in Rock Springs, Wyoming needed to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ through watching God miraculously heal a patient that he himself had no power to heal? Or any one of the hundreds of lives that were touched by Kiki's story? I simply don't know. But I feel sure that if I were the only one who needed that prayer to be answered, He would have answered it. I doubt that there is one person on that trip, especially those in the van and Bronco, that could forget what happened.
Faith is one of those things that is really simple and extremely complex. It's kind of like Geometry, even if you don't understand it if you just take it at face value it all works out. Hebrews 11:1 says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." And 1 Corinthians 12:4-11 talks about the spiritual gifts that God gives us.
"4There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines."
It's very clear in this passage that faith is a spiritual gift, from God. I took a "Spiritual Gifts" test a few years ago at the church we attended in the Philippines. I had never known before that test what my spiritual gift was. Honestly, I didn't think I had one. I had low to moderate scores on every gift, save one: Faith. In that, I topped the scale. It makes so much sense now, for just after I became a Christian, God gave me the gift of faith, a deep, unshakable trust in His sovereignty over every situation and certainty of His love for us.
That one event that established my faith so deeply became a stumbling block for every doubt that has ever entered my life since then. And I have had doubts but, when thoughts of doubt come my way, I can't get over what God did that day. One could explain away most other things in my life that I know to be miracles as coincidence, but I can't get around what God did that day. The only thing I can do is LIVE in that faith that God is big enough to do whatever He wills, and I can rest there.
