Once Upon a Fever

It was years ago...my oldest daughter was only four.

She had a febrile seizure just a week or so before that had caused her to stop breathing for more than a minute, a moment in my mothering life that I will never, ever forget.

And now, just a small number of days later, another fever appeared.

My body shook with the force of the fear that coursed through me as I felt the heat radiating from her body.

What if it happened again? What if we lost her this time?

I called to Steve to let him know she was sick, and that I was going downstairs to get the thermometer. Every step I took, down the stairs and to the kitchen, I prayed.

"Dear Lord, take the fever from her body. Please, God, heal my baby girl."

Back up the stairs, my prayers continued. Tears welled in my eyes, my heart hammering within my chest.

Walking into her bedroom, I had no sense that anything had changed. It wasn't until I sat next to her small form that I realized that the heat I had felt so easily just moments before was gone.

Placing my hand on her forehead, I felt only a light sheen of sweat. No fever, no unnatural warmth.

Just because, I slipped the thermometer in her mouth.

97.9

Less than average.

I ran into my bedroom, the thermometer clutched in my fist.

"Were you praying?" I asked Steve.

He looked at me strangely. "Yes," he said slowly. "I was praying for Kahlan's fever to break."

"I was too," I responded. "And it did."

It was one of the few times in my life that I truly feel I witnessed a miracle. Though God doesn't always answer our prayers in the way we expect or hope for, that night He did.

Kahlan didn't have another fever for years. Years.

God is so good.

"Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete." (John 16:24)