Thursday, February 05, 2009
True story. I've always had one leg longer than the other. My mom used to have to hem my pants different on each leg. My right arm is longer too, but I suppose that's good for when I have to reach the children in the backseat...(you know what I'm talking about, moms). But years ago, when I started exercising diligently, my hip on the longer leg side began to really cause me pain.
Then one day there was this woman I knew who had come over to my house to go over a Women's Bible Study plan we were making. I jumped up to go get a book and my hip grabbed as it would often do. I turned and said to her, "I think I should have you pray for my hip", and I proceeded to explain the long leg thing to her. "Oh, I have the faith to pray for that!" she said...which I thought was a strange response. But she sat me down in a chair with my two legs stretched out on a chair in front of me so that the difference in length was apparent. Then she prayed and three of us (her 9 year old daughter was there) watched my other leg grow... literally, right before our eyes. We looked at each other stunned...no one was sure what to say. Finally the woman said to me, with as much shock in her voice as I felt, "did you see that?" "Did you see that?" she said to her daughter. We all nodded. I remember what it felt like too...I think i would expect it to feel like stretching if your limb grew, but it actually felt like a sort of pushing or sliding...from the inside, along my femur. That was the part that had me dumbfounded even more than the watching...the feeling. So I stood up then, and as soon as I did I knew I was taller. I guess that makes sense, my leg grew, but that surprised me too. I felt taller.
I don't really tell that story to anyone, and I know that seems near heretical to folks who seek hard for healing miracles. I definitely have no doubt that it happened and that it was definitely outside of naturally occuring incidents, but here's the thing. My hip pain never got any better...it is aching right now as I sit here typing. I live around it and often ask Jesus if he'll heal me so that maybe I'll be able to nail my pirouette on that side someday, but it still hurts everyday. Even after all these years (I think that was at least 6 years ago), I can't make sense out of a growing leg on one hand and chronic hip pain on the other and I don't really think of it as a "miracle". It's more of a dog and pony magic trick to me.
But it did happen. When Steve got home that night I made him measure me. I couldn't get over the "taller" feeling. I measure 5'8" now. My medical records and driver's license insist that I'm only 5'7", but I can show you otherwise.
I'm taller. I just don't know why.
How's that for strange and random?
Then one day there was this woman I knew who had come over to my house to go over a Women's Bible Study plan we were making. I jumped up to go get a book and my hip grabbed as it would often do. I turned and said to her, "I think I should have you pray for my hip", and I proceeded to explain the long leg thing to her. "Oh, I have the faith to pray for that!" she said...which I thought was a strange response. But she sat me down in a chair with my two legs stretched out on a chair in front of me so that the difference in length was apparent. Then she prayed and three of us (her 9 year old daughter was there) watched my other leg grow... literally, right before our eyes. We looked at each other stunned...no one was sure what to say. Finally the woman said to me, with as much shock in her voice as I felt, "did you see that?" "Did you see that?" she said to her daughter. We all nodded. I remember what it felt like too...I think i would expect it to feel like stretching if your limb grew, but it actually felt like a sort of pushing or sliding...from the inside, along my femur. That was the part that had me dumbfounded even more than the watching...the feeling. So I stood up then, and as soon as I did I knew I was taller. I guess that makes sense, my leg grew, but that surprised me too. I felt taller.
I don't really tell that story to anyone, and I know that seems near heretical to folks who seek hard for healing miracles. I definitely have no doubt that it happened and that it was definitely outside of naturally occuring incidents, but here's the thing. My hip pain never got any better...it is aching right now as I sit here typing. I live around it and often ask Jesus if he'll heal me so that maybe I'll be able to nail my pirouette on that side someday, but it still hurts everyday. Even after all these years (I think that was at least 6 years ago), I can't make sense out of a growing leg on one hand and chronic hip pain on the other and I don't really think of it as a "miracle". It's more of a dog and pony magic trick to me.
But it did happen. When Steve got home that night I made him measure me. I couldn't get over the "taller" feeling. I measure 5'8" now. My medical records and driver's license insist that I'm only 5'7", but I can show you otherwise.
I'm taller. I just don't know why.
How's that for strange and random?
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