Don't Wait To Pray

The Lord is near to everyone who prays to Him,

to every faithful person who prays to Him."

Psalms 145:18

One day when I was sixteen years old and home after school preparing supper, the phone rang. My dad was in the hospital fighting for his life. He should have been walking through the back door of our house about then, but instead he was lying in a hospital bed. My mother was the one who answered the phone and my first response to her was, "Let's pray." My mother was in shock, but we prayed.

The day the accident occurred, my dad was walking to the bus stop after work. He always took the city bus to and from work every day. With things obviously pressing on his mind, he became unaware of his surroundings, walking mechanically the route he always took to catch the bus that should have taken him home. Without looking or paying attention, my dad walked right in front of a transit bus that was filled with people. To the horror of the female bus driver and all those people on board the bus, the bus was unable to stop in time and ran over my dad. He ended up being pinned underneath the bus with one of the wheels of that massive transport vehicle crushing his left leg. As the blood ran down the street from the open wounds of my dad's leg, he remained conscious. My dad has always been physically strong. (Mentally, however, I believe he was crippled from his experiences of war; he never was able to talk about the five years he was in the airforce.) When the paramedics came and assessed the situation, they decided that the best decision would be to amputate his leg and get him immediately to the nearest hospital to save his life. However, my dad would have none of it. This was the reason he didn't fall into unconsciousness. The power of the mind can be astounding. He knew they would amputate and he was determined to not allow them to. He could still move his foot, so he showed the paramedics and convinced them to save his leg.

Writing about this accident, I can't even slightly comprehend what my dad must have gone through: the shock, the pain, the horror and the panic. His determination, will-power and strength gives me pride. After all, he was my father.

An amazing and talented surgeon operated on my dad, saving his leg. Later my dad had to fight infection as well, but his leg was saved and usable. He did struggle with discomfort, pain and stiffness in the leg throughout the years, but he was very grateful he still had his leg. It never bothered him to wear shorts in the summer time, even in public, though his scars were horrendous.

I believe that if my mother and I didn't pray when we did, my dad would have lost his leg. The surgeon that operated on my dad's leg didn't even live in the area; he was only visiting the university at the time to train other surgeons. One of the local doctors remembered he was there and contacted him for his help. The surgery was complex and lengthy. Most doctors would have performed immediate amputation.

Here is a picture of my dad with ice-skates slung across his shoulders at a frozen lake where I grew up. This picture was taken before the accident. He loved to ice skate ever since he was a young boy growing up in Alberta where the winters are long and cold.

May your first response to tragedy or a dire circumstance be prayer. Don't wait! Sometimes if we delay, we can miss out on a miracle and it can be too late.