Like a Child Again

Her eyes, tired & weary from a long week of battling sickness & depression.
I ask in the most encouraging voice I can muster, "Do you want to pray with me??"
A meek shoulder shrug in response. 
"Sure." 

We prayed for depression to leave, anxiety to calm, negative thoughts & lies to be replaced with His truth, & for healing. 
She said she felt a weight lifted off her shoulders.
She said she felt the "dark object" that's been haunting her leave the room. PTL!
"How do you feel?!", I ask. 
"Better... I feel better." 
She doesn't talk much. 

Then, in the middle of our Skype call, she accidentally fell & scraped her knee. 
I watched as she sat in pain, trying her best to stop the bleeding.
& that was when I heard His gentle & loving voice interrupt:
"Show her what it's like to be a child again."

I invite her to pray with me. 
"I know it's only a small little bruise, & I know you're the one who fell & hurt yourself, & this is probably really stupid... stop rambling Eileen. Okay so yeah, do you want to pray over your knee with me?"
A more definite shoulder shrug than last time.
"Okay."

I invite numbness into her knee. 
Sounds a bit funny now that I think about it. 
 A simple 30 second prayer later, she looks at me, smiling.
"It doesn't hurt! I just feel a tingly feeling in my knee but that's about it!"
"Well, is it still bleeding?"
"Nothing's leaking through my band-aid, so no!"

We laugh together. 

"See?! See what God can do? See how much He cares? Even about the smallest little bruise?"
Her eyes, wide open, twinkling with an inkling of hope for a better life. 
She nods confidently.
"Yeah!"

I tell her what we will be "attacking & overcoming" together with Jesus this particular week. 
Her depression, negative thoughts, & fear. 
Those are a lot of things to deal with in one week. "You think you can try?", I ask her with ease. 
Boldly, confidently, & like a whole new person, she answers, 
"I am READY for this". 

3 years of knowing her, & this is the most confident I've ever seen her. 
All because God chose to heal a little bruise on her knee. 
All because He showed her what it's like to be a child again. 
Because if we can go to Him with the little things, it's easier to give to Him the bigger things- the heavier things, the shameful things, the unfixable things, the things that seem too much for Him to handle.
Because GOD, who has quite a capacity for patience, has not given up on us, even when we ourselves have lost all hope. 

Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. It is my greatest joy to see you draw close to the people you love. It is my greatest desire to co-labor with you so that they may know you. 
Thank you, Lord, for loving us the way you do.