ALL things new.

One year ago, actually June 30 to be specific, I broke my neck.

I sometimes forget that.

You see, I love a God who makes all things new, who trades ashes for beauty.  When my doctor came in after my MRI last year, he was prepared to rush me to another hospital in a bigger city for emergency surgery.  We prayed.  An hour later, they decided to wait on surgery and send me to get checked out by a specialist.  God’s sweet mercies had only just begun.

This is the injury I sustained (from a trampoline accident, ha): between my C5 and C6 vertebrae, the disc had ruptured, completely obliterated, against my spinal cord, where fluid was beginning to gather.  My C5, C6, and C7 vertebrae had somehow been smashed upon one another as well.  What’s most dangerous about this was the pressure on my spinal cord; I could’ve very well been paralyzed for life if I had slightly moved wrong.

What makes the fact that I can walk today so incredible is that I slept on my broken neck an entire night before going to get it checked out.  I, in all reality, should have and could have very easily been paralyzed after breaking my neck and then going to bed, merely thinking I threw out my neck horribly. 

I spent the majority of last summer confined on my couch in a neck brace, in the physical therapy center, and in appointments and procedures with my specialist in St. Louis.  There were days I would cry to God in fear that I wouldn’t get to go to college in time, that I would never lose the pain that rendered me physically useless. 

God, in all His goodness, taught me an important lesson: He is in control, He is more powerful than any situation I could ever encounter, and He loves to display His love in making our brokenness into a miracle.  I should have been in a neck brace for months; I was out of it in a month and a half.  The pain that plagued my damaged nerves, muscles, and spine continued into the first few months of college; one night I got prayer, and I didn’t take a pill for the pain ever again after that night.  I had been taking a pill every night for three months by that point for the immense pain.

Today it dawned on me, as I dashed across the street in Hillsboro Village, how incredibly blessed I am to be here. Right now.  How a year ago I cried myself to sleep, wondering if I would ever get this precious opportunity to move to Nashville and pursue what God has put on my heart.   Most people who sustain the injury I did are laid up for a year or so, with many struggles and issues.  I guess the reason I’m writing this blog is to remind myself of that especially.  God is SO FAITHFUL to the cries of our heart; He always knows what is best, He always provides.  Jehovah Jireh has a plan and purpose for my life.

Praise You, God, for Your love, for, as it says in the book of Hosea, transforming my trouble into hope, my mess into a message, and my mourning into joy.  Praise You, worthy Father, for Your everlasting love.  You are so faithful, so infinite, so GOOD.  I love You, and I pray that I will use every door You open for me to bring You glory. in Jesus name, Amen.

“I will give her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor (trouble) as a door of hope; She shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.”      (Hosea 2:15)

“Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”  (Rev. 21:5)