Not Because Me, But Because Of You Lord!

Not because me, but because of You!

Illus. From Guideposts, “Miracles of Healing”

There was a woman and her son Mark that went shopping in a large department store one day. On their way down to the main floor her son hopped on the escalator. She then followed. Suddenly her son Mark screamed like she never had heard him scream before.

Mama mama, my foot, momma help!

Marks right foot was wedged between the side of the moving step in the escalator wall. His body was twisted around and around and he was screaming with pain as the escalator continued downward.

In the panic of the moment, the danger at the bottom of the escalator flashed before her eyes, as she thought his foot would be severed.

Turn off the escalator she screamed loudly, somebody please help. And then, oh dear God, dear God, help us help us. Several people at the base of the elevator rushed around in a flury of activity, then the escalator suddeny stopped!

Someone had pressed the emergency button at the top of the steps.

Thank you God she sighed as she continued praying. Mark clutched to her arm and cried while she struggled to get a better look at his foot.

A chill reached up her spine as she sat there seeing the tiny space with him and his foot was trapped in what looked no more than a quarter of an inch wide. All she could see of his foot, was his heel. The rest had disappeared into the jaws of the escalator.

Somebody call the fire department she shouted. Her little boy Mark looked up at her so desperately, mama mama mama, please mama! She sat next to him holding him and she prayed for a miracle. For a moment he quieted down but soon he began crying loudly screaming daddy daddy daddy.

Thinking someone might call her husband she began to shout his phone number and the number of where he worked and the name of the business he worked at.

Then what seemed to her like an eternity, she patted his head and he cried. Thoughts of wheelchairs and crutches flooded the images of her mind.

No Little League, no soccer matches, everything of the future seemed so uncertain.

She prayed and prayed, thinking to her self trying to find a Bible verse she could hold onto. Romans 8:28 came to her mind “and we know all things

Work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose!”

With all the authority she could muster up, she thought to her self. Lord! You promised Lord and you know all things Lord, make them work together for good! Like a recorder on auto play, those thoughts raced over and over through her mind!

A few moments later her little boy Mark looked up at her and said, “mama my bones feel broken and my foot hurts awful” She embraced him even greater than she had up until this point fearful that he might faint and go into shock, at the same time fearing the same might happen to her.

She thought, oh Lord I know you’re here, but where are you Lord? I need your help! At that moment she felt a warm soft arm embrace her from behind. A woman’s soothing voice said quietly in her ear Jesus is here, Jesus is here!

The woman said both calmly and reassuredly, “tell your son Jesus is here and his foot is all right” Tell him you’ll buy him a new pair of shoes and whatever he wants when this is all over!

At that moment, Mark stopped crying and said, “cowboy boots, cowboy boots that’s what I want, I want cowboy boots just like daddy’s!” The woman also said tell him they’ll be no broken bones.

As she told him, hope came rushing in for the first time since the ordeal began and replaced her doubt! No sooner then the words leaving her lips the woman and instructed her to tell her son, the fireman arrived on the scene.

With a crowbar the firemen were able to pry the step away from the escalator wall, freeing Marks tiny foot at last. His shoe was ripped to shreds.

It took all the courage she had to watch as the men pulled his shredded sock off of his little foot, but when they did they revealed a red, bruised, but whole and complete foot!

It was a miracle, and she turned with joy to share the good news with the woman who had came and comforted her, all she saw was a faint image of her at the top of the escalator walking away.

Her husband Craig, arrived just as the firemen were sitting Mark down on the floor. The little boy was still crying, but wiggling every one of his toes. Later, at the hospital x-rays revealed what the woman had said confidently. That there would be no broken bones and there weren’t!

I never did find out the woman’s identity, the woman said. Only that when I prayed and asked God where He was, He came the moment I called on His name!

There is nothing like a mothers love, there’s nothing like God’s love, there’s nothing like a mothers love who loves God and is dependent on God’s love for her children!