Heed the Still Small Voice
Just the other day, we were having dinner with another missionary family and we began to share stories of our children and our different mission experiences with each other. I was reminded of our very first mission trip back in 2007. We left our children ages 6, 7, 9, and 11 with our very good friends. We asked them to make sure the children stayed off of anything with wheels while we were gone to avoid any hospital related injuries. No bicycles, no skate boards. We went down the rules with the children before we left as well because we were going to be very far away and completely unreachable.
About a week later, our 11 year old son, Jacob, decided he was bored with playing inside and went outside to ride his bike. He later said that he clearly heard the Holy Spirit tell him to go back inside and watch TV but he argued and then dismissed it and went riding anyway. He rode his bike to the end of our long street with his younger brother and then they decided to race back to the house as fast as they could. The street was a steep declined toward the house and they picked up speed as they raced down the sidewalk. Jacob's shoe lace got caught in one of the petals which made him loose control and sent him flying over his handle bars. He landed face first on the hard cement.
Our friends rushed him to the emergency room with his two front teeth in a quart of milk. When they arrived at the hospital, the staff refused to treat him without parental consent. Although we authorized our friends to make medical decisions on our behalf, the staff would not accept our notarized release. Luckily Jacob's grandmother was working that evening just a few floors away and she rushed down to assist. There wasn't a pediatric dentist on duty at the time but the nurse decided to try to put his teeth back into his swollen gums. Jacob's screams were so terrible, that our friends cried for weeks afterward whenever they recounted the experience. After a few attempts, the nurse got his teeth back into his gums and glued them into place.
Jacob 's face was unrecognizable. It was very swollen and scrapped up with black and blue bruises. His upper lip was about an inch thick and the bone holding his upper teeth had been shattered. He was only able to drink liquids but couldn't open his jaw or use a straw. His healing was very slow and he was constantly hungry. His teeth eventually replanted but much of his bone was lost. We were told to expect his teeth to abscess and die but they didn't until a few years later when we started orthodontics. We were warned that braces would shift his teeth and possibly cause them to die, but his mouth was in desperate need of braces.
Ten years later, Jacob has begun the process of replacing his dead and damaged teeth. He had to wait until he was around 20 years old for his mouth to finish growing before permanent teeth could be implanted. When the periodontist removed his front teeth, he found an infection that he said would have taken Jacob's life if it had gone untreated much longer. The doctor was able to clean the infection out and put in a bone graft. Jacob is still in the process of repairing the damage from that day. A tremendous amount of pain, and thousands of dollars have been spent over the years to repair the damage from that one single decision. Needless to say, Jacob has learned to heed the voice of the Holy Spirit. Dismissing that voice has cost him dearly and has taught him a life-long lesson. His accident has become an example of how a moment can alter your future. God has been with him through the healing process, but it was His will for him to avoid the pain and trauma in the first place. Have you recognized a time when you had a thought that you ignored and realized later that you should have listened? I know I have.
- Sheila Conley