A request had just come through our church's prayer chain: "Pray that God will heal a 12-year old boy who is in a coma from herpes encephalitis."

There was something about the severity of this situation that called for more than a glib compliance with the prayer request. Besides, I have a "truth and justice" voice inside me that does not allow me to comply with something I do not believe is possible. Knowing the low survival rate for herpes encephalitis, I did not believe at that time recovery could be possible.

I could not pray as I was told. However, I did pray, "God, show me how to pray for this child." Next, I held my closed Bible between the palms of both hands, suspended all thinking and allowed my thumbs to open the book intuitively. I know. I know. People say you are not supposed to do that. They argue, "What if you are told to do something totally out of context?" Well, I was asking God how I should pray for this boy and at that time in my life, the only way I could be certain the answer was coming from God, was to look in the Bible.

"Show me how to pray," I whispered as I opened the book. As I glanced over the two pages of Psalm 27, verse 13 seemed to stand out to me:

"I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living."(NASB)

What could this mean? Was this a promise from God that the boy would live? I spoke a soft prayer, "God, if this is really you speaking through this verse, then I believe he will be healed." I decided to keep this to myself since it seemed to fly in the face of rational facts, and it felt safer to keep it inside my heart.

A few days later I was at the hospital with one of my kids, when I saw the boy's mother. We went for coffee and I asked her, "So how is he?" Sadly, she shook her head and replied, "The doctors say there is little hope. He is brain-dead or will be soon."

At that moment I remembered the Bible verse, so I asked the mother, "What does God say?" Her eyes lit up and a smile stretched across her face. In a hushed tone, she whispered, "Now that's another matter! God tells me that all is well. But I'm his mother. Maybe that is just wishful thinking."

"Maybe not," I pulled a small Bible from my purse. "Listen to this verse I was drawn to while praying for your son." I read it slowly and carefully, so she could receive the full meaning behind it. "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." When I was done, our eyes met; we both stood up and embraced each other!

"Let's keep this as our secret," the mother suggested.

"I agree. It is our secret." I promised.

Her son did not die. Gradually he came back to life. It was a long journey, but today he is alive and well. I remember seeing him when he was about 19 years old — he had such a sweet expression on his face that I wondered if he had been with angels. I also found out that he could drive a car and had his driver's license. I was told he went downhill skiing with his friends on weekends. He missed about a year of school and had to learn how to read all over again, but in the grand scheme of things, that is very little.

As I look back upon this miracle — one of the first miracles in which I participated -- I see a number of key factors were at work:

1. Acceptance of the diagnosis was a big step. Often people simply do not want to accept what is presenting in the moment. Denial and suppression are never constructive.

2. Integrity was vital. My desire for truth led me to seek a higher level of information. Sometimes it seems easier to go along with the crowd, but this experience taught me to pay attention to the resistance I feel when confronted with someone's "wishful thinking."

3. I trusted my intuition. Intuition is our built-in guidance system. Some people get a "gut feeling"; others get "goose bumps"; while some folks seem to have a "knowing." In this case, my intuition drew my attention to that specific Bible verse.

4. I carefully guarded this precious spiritual insight. If I had tried to tell the doctors, "God told me the boy will live," and they reacted negatively to this message, they could have created doubt in my heart and it's possible the boy might have died instead. 5. Power was multiplied exponentially when two of us agreed. "If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven." (Matthew 18:19) David R. Hawkins in Truth vs. Falsehood, page 38, states that one person vibrating in unconditional love counterbalances the negativity of 750,000 people in a negative state, how much more powerful are two people? 6. We celebrated the signs along the way toward the completion of this miracle! Sometimes a miracle occurs in a moment. Other times, it takes months or years to fully unfold. I remember celebrating with gratitude each milestone this young man reached during his lengthy recovery. His mother and I kept our secret with each other...until now.

Looking back on this miraculous event, I can clearly see how the affirmation we are using during "A Year of Miracles" is precise and true:

Even though this situation looks bad (or hopeless or endless) I am opening a Window of Possibility to an unexpected outcome.

When two people hold open a Window of Possibility, even the impossible becomes possible and miracles happen.

Copyright (c) 2008 Rebecca Hanson