MERRYN’S MIRACLE by Pamela McCormick
October 2019 Our son and his family were heading out for a drive. Joseph went into the garage and placed their baby Charlotte in her car seat. His three-year-old daughter Merryn had come into the garage with him. When her daddy told her to get in her car seat, she walked the long way around her parents’ other car for some reason and accidentally walked into a metal shelf hanging low, gouging her right eye. Merryn was taken immediately to the doctor, a pediatric optometrist. Frantic and yet hoping against all fear, that her eye had not sustained great damage. The optometrist offered no hope. Merryn’s cornea was partially lacerated and scarred up. Maybe when she was twenty, she would be able to have surgery and then have her vision restored. For now, the answer was that the scar tissue was too much; it covered her eye like a deep dark cloud. The answer was glasses and a patch to wear over her good eye to help make her injured eye stronger. There was a great sadness, but our son and his wife clung to the hope they had in Christ Jesus. It was an accident, and their praises did not stop. Their prayers continued for their daughter, and gratitude multiplied that she had not lost her eye. Merryn and her daddy FaceTimed us when the glasses arrived. We told her how beautiful she looked in her new glasses. I commented, “I love your red glasses, Merryn.” She replied back, “Grandma, they’re not red. They’re raspberry.” Though her eye was impaired, Merryn was still able to see barely, but had blurred vision. The corrective lenses were to help, or so we thought. We would find out differently later. FAITH ON EVERY CORNER
I was teaching a children’s Bible study on Wednesday night with another friend. Aidan, Addie, Eli, John, David, Luke, Edy, Sarah, Tucker, and Nathan all prayed for Merryn. The children knew I was distraught and hugged me; they told me God was going to heal Merryn’s eye. As crazy as it sounded, I texted our son and told him what the children had said. Joseph and Sheila expressed gratitude for their prayers; they were always realistic that it was unlikely that her eye would be healed, but knew that God could and hoped that God would. Could the words of these children spoken in childlike faith really restore our granddaughter’s eye? Were these children at the Bible study telling the truth? Even as our hope began to fade, and we accepted this as it was, we would all see God in all His glory soon. February 2020 Sheila takes Merryn back to the optometrist for a three-month follow-up after receiving the glasses. Merryn was not complaining about her eye but said that she didn’t like her glasses and couldn’t see well when she wore them. The same doctor that had examined Merryn in October was there testing her eyes. She checked her eye three times, turned on the light, and looked at Sheila. Her words: “I do not understand. I tested her eye three times, and her vision is normal for a three-year-old and no longer needs her glasses.” The doctor told Merryn you don’t have to wear your glasses anymore. She had been told to wear her glasses all the time, so she didn’t understand someone telling her she no longer needed to wear them.
