December 2006

In the midst of Advent, I find an Easter verse reverberating in my heart. "A man of sorrows, familiar with suffering" (Isaiah 53:3).

This has been a year of sadness and suffering for our family. On July 2, on a late morning training ride, Daniel was hit by a car. Impact with the pavement shattered his L2 vertebra. Twentyfour hours later, he was in surgery to rebuild the vertebra that had been crushed to 50-percent of its height.

In the weeks that followed, I watched my strong, athletic husband shake with pain, his face turn pale and gaunt, his movements become guarded and cautious, trying to avoid exacerbating his injury. I saw the ache in him when his son reached up to be held, and when the days slipped away to fall, his summer lost.

Daniel's pain was literal, mine was heartache. But in the midst of suffering, I felt joy. My husband was alive! My Daniel could walk. And more than that, his surgeon anticipated a full recovery. Daniel would return to work and to racing mountain bikes.

Isaiah calls Christ "Immanuel", which means "God with us". God was present at that intersection; He protected Daniel from far worse injuries. God was with me as I drove to the hospital. God provided the best surgeon in Spokane and guided his hands. God made my husband strong. God gave me reserved of energy I had no idea I possessed as I cared for both Daniel and Karsten. And God provided the financial resources that our foresight did not. (The young woman who hit Daniel did not have insurance and our uninsured motorist insurance was woefully inadequate to cover our expenses.)

I admit to being something of a worrier. But the God of all comfort lifted that weight. I trusted Him to see us through, to heal Daniel, to give me the strength to be our strength, to provide the work I needed and the money we required to pay our bills. I put that panicky little bird of worry in His hands each time its wings beat against the bars and clawed at my heart. And I learned to wait on Him. To trust more deeply than I ever had before.

I have seen Christ in my husband. In his pain. In his quiet strength. In his righteous indignation. In his love for his little boy and for me. I have seen Christ in Karsten, in his adoration of and delight in his Daddy. And I have seen the Holy Spirit - the Comforter - comfort Daniel through me.

Daniel is back at work on light duty. And he is back on his mountain bike. (We no longer ride the roads in Spokane.) Perhaps most importantly, Daniel can scoop up his son again. The healing continues.

Joy and suffering are not opposites. In Christ, they are companions. As we celebrate the birth of the Christ child, we are grateful for Christ, the man, and his willingness to come into our world and suffer for us that we might know joy.

With grateful hearts,

-Kyrsten

PS  We found out not long ago that Daniel's fusion is complete. The surgeon said he has never seen anyone grow bone as quickly as Daniel has. We know your prayers and God's grace have everything to do with it.