“We’re not going to operate today. We’ll probably go ahead with it on Friday, so just leave her here, and we’ll see.” On Friday afternoon there was no operation, either, and thus it went five weeks: each week an operation tentatively scheduled, and each week the operation postponed. Five weeks later, Mrs. Fischer was to bring her baby home from the hospital—her head diminished in size by some ten inches, but still monstrously large. The doctors had said, “Let’s wait a while longer. If this decrease in size continues, surgery will not be necessary.” But before Mrs. Fischer took the baby home, the doctors had given her what was perhaps the most shattering news she had yet received about her child.
Her child was and would remain—in the opinion of the doctors—hopelessly mentally retarded. They urged her to make arrangements to send the child to Polk State School, an institution for retarded children. But the mother’s instantaneous reaction was one of rebellion. She could not—she would not—send the child away to an institution.
A MOTHER’S UNYIELDING FAITH
It was at this time that Mrs. Fischer decided to take the baby to every service at Carnegie Hall, praying with all her heart and soul that the healing hand of Jesus would touch this defenseless, defective baby, making her whole and perfect as she was meant to be.
And thus week after week, they followed the procedure—the young sister holding the seat in the auditorium, while her mother fed her family at home, then quickly dressed herself and her little water-head baby, and took the long streetcar ride to Carnegie Hall. After each service, the child’s head seemed to decrease a little in size, and after the first few weeks, everyone in the family began to detect changes, not only in her physical appearance but in her physical reactions.
SIGNS OF RESTORATION
One day her mother laid her in her crib for her afternoon nap. Mrs. Fischer was sure she had put the baby on her back, but when she went in the room a few moments later to get something she had forgotten, she glanced at the crib, and saw that little Billie was lying on her stomach.
At first, the mother thought she might have been mistaken—that perhaps, after all, she had left the baby on her stomach when she left the room. She now turned her gently back without awakening her. When she went to pick her up after her nap, she found the baby again on her stomach, so now she knew. It had been no mistake—Billie could actually turn herself over. As the weeks went on, and Billie’s head continued, gradually, to grow smaller, her eyes were no longer buried in their sockets. Perhaps the most thrilling day of all was the day that Billie looked at her mother with recognition in her eyes, and smiled at her!
THE MIRACLE ACKNOWLEDGED
A few months later, Mrs. Fischer took her baby to the pediatrician at Allegheny General Hospital. He was astonished at the change in the child’s appearance, and even more so after he had examined her and found her seemingly perfect. He called in the brain specialist who had formerly taken care of her along with eight other doctors all familiar with the case. They, too, examined her, and were all equally amazed to find the child perfectly normal in every respect. The brain specialist was heard to remark: “The Man upstairs gets the full credit for this.”
A TESTIMONY OF FAITH REWARDED
“She is the smartest of all my children,” said her proud and grateful mother when she was 12 years old. “An ‘A’ student in school.” And she is as pretty as she is smart. Her eyesight is perfect, as are her mind and body and coordination. All the children in the Fischer family have a close relationship, one with the other, but the relationship of this little girl with her big sister, who is now nearly twenty-five, is one of special and extraordinary closeness. As Mrs. Fischer said: “God has drawn them just a little bit closer to each other than to anyone else.”
God honoured the faith of a 12-year-old child. He touched, in His mercy, the defective baby who was her sister, and He made her whole in every respect that she might live and work to His glory.
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for Me?”
Jeremiah 32:27
Miraculous Monday: 6th February 2023
Miraculous Monday 026
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