Becky's Miracle

When you first see Becky, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt in church with hiking shoes, and sporting a butch haircut, your first reaction is bound to be, "Lesbian."  Either that or she lost all her hair from chemotherapy and is just now growing it back.

In fact, she's a faithful Orthodox Christian, and whether she is battling the other I don't really know.  What I do know is, she's a walking, living miracle.    At the coffee hour, she was saying something about how wonderful it was to be walking perfectly well, without even a cane, after so many years in a wheelchair.  "Was it cancer?" I asked.

"No, it was PLS," she said, "primary lateral sclerosis."

"Never heard of it."

"It's much like ALS," she said, "Lou Gehrig's disease."

"A progressive disease, I think," I said.

She nodded.

I was confused.  "But - but there isn't any cure for it, is there?"

She shrugged, grinning broadly.  "Supposedly.  But here I am!"

We didn't have enough time to talk, but in broad outline, she came down with the disease when she was in middle school, and she looks to be a  thirty-something now.  She spent many years in a  wheelchair and then one day, she felt herself so  much better than in  the course of "about three  minutes",  she found she could walk.  "And I wasn't Orthodox then,  either," she said, adding that this was what had brought  her to the Church.

When  I met her, a year ago, she was hobbling about  on crutches,  but now she walks better than I do.  And she stands through the whole service, a fitting tribute to Him Who made her able to stand.

There is no sign in her body, she says, of the PLS.  It's just gone.

All this she related to me in the presence of Amanda, who can only walk a few steps at a time, with a crutch.  If that doesn't beg the question, I din't know what does:  why some and not others?  The answer, well, we don't really know, but we do know God gives to each of us what will best help us spiritually.

Recently, I was talking to on old man (86) who asked me if I had ever seen a miracle, adding that he never had.  Yes, oh, yes!  Miracles abound.  Even if we, in our ingratitude, don't count each opening flower or each tiny bird, wonders are everywhere.  I think it's five people I've now met who have had miraculous cures.  (And 2 of those are not Orthodox.)

What does it mean when someone who isn't even a church-goer is given a miracle?  Of course it means God is forgiving and loving and accepting that person.  Jesus pointed out that healing and forgiveness are interchangeable:  "Which is easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven' or 'Rise up and walk?'"  Because God wouldn't heal you if He were mad at you.

Next Sunday, I intend to ask Becky if she will let me video her telling her story for no more than five minutes.  If she says yes, I'll post the video so you can have the firsthand account.

I'll also ask her what she might do with her now wide-open future.