When my wife was pregnant, we were so excited

My Bible: reasons to believe in the power of the Bible

‘When my wife was pregnant, we were so excited. But it was a very difficult birth. My daughter spent a long time in the special care unit. There were weeks of tests. I was thinking that everything was going to be OK. 

‘The consultant laid it all on the line for us. She would never walk or talk. Her epilepsy would be difficult to control. She would be in nappies her whole life. They had found out that she was blind as well. They didn’t know how long her life expectancy was. 

‘Our world came crashing down. My wife stayed in the hospital with our daughter. I came home to an empty house, and I broke my heart to the Lord. I more or less said quite a few swear words. How could this happen? It wasn’t supposed to happen. 

‘The next morning I apologised to God and prayed that he would speak to me. I read Isaiah 51.1–3 which says, “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many. The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins, he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”

‘I’d been looking at my daughter’s brain scans and they were a “wasteland”, but God was saying that joy and gladness would be found. And it has. When my daughter laughs, she stops plenty of church services. She’s so full of joy, in spite of everything. She’s happier than most people I know.

‘She was diagnosed with cancer six years ago. They told us to go home and enjoy the next few months, but she’s still going. 

‘I’ve been through two failed marriages and had an alcoholic spell in the middle of it. My daughter is the one that God has used as a reminder of his faithfulness and his constancy. Those promises that I read in Isaiah in 1993 are just as true today as they were then.’

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