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Current mood:  grateful Category: Religion and Philosophy
As eagles flutter over their nests, and with lightening speed, mothers often dive into action, with little more than an instinctive warning of things to come.
Such was my disposition when I stirred myself into a ten-day fast on behalf of my son Christopher, prior to his attack on 1 May. (see blog Part I & II)
Family and friends are accustomed to my fasting lifestyle. In our wacky and wonderful family its not unusual for mum to be sipping fresh squeezed juice while the brood devour Sunday roasts or Dominos Pizza. In fact, over twenty five years of frequent fasting has rewarded me with superior health and longevity.
One of the toughest mental fasts I have endured in twenty-five years, my days were filled with reading, prayer, rest, uncompromising self scrutiny and gallons of herbal tea.
In much the same way battled eagles draw aside to recoup in fresh spring waters, cleaning wounded wings of parasites to refluff their down, my mind, body and spirit underwent painstaking soul searching.
Having jumped the nest at thirteen years of age, and with the approach of his twenty eighty birthday this year, I was desperate for answers to the desolation a mother experiences when disconnected from one of her young.
On the eighth day of my fast, a sense of urgency compelled me to attend a prayer meeting at CCC, my church in Oxford Falls, on the night of 1 May. My first prayer meeting since the close of 2006.
The following morning, I accompanied Chris to a court hearing for charges related to graffiti work on a Railway Station. (Chris is a very talented artist; which I confess I haven't always supported)
Suffering from a headache that began with a healing crisis the day before, I was unable to conceal my frustration when we realised we turned up to court on the wrong day.
Hauling him and his discomfited girlfriend into a nearby cafe, my exasperation gave way to alarm after he confessed he had been in a serious fight the night before.
Hearing he had been held down by two men, while two others beat him around the face; and hit him at the base of the skull with a hammer, my mood, like the flip of a coin, turned quickly to calm tenacity as we made our way to the hospital.
Long-drawn-out admittance procedures are par for the course in over crowded emergency rooms, yet with Germanic precision, Chris saw a Doctor, was x rayed, had an MRI and admitted to hospital within four and a half hours after our arrival.
You know the rest, and the bigger story is still in the telling; however his narrow escape from fatal injury was brought home to me when I came across a hammer in my kitchen cupboard this week.
Feeling its weight in my hand, my blood chilled as I pictured labourers driving steel nails into hard surfaces on building sites.
Choking on my tears as I felt the weight of lost time since he jumped the nest fifteen years ago; it was this burden that goaded me into a fresh season of prayer and fasting, which as it turned out may have been the catalyst that saved his life.
Saddened as I feel with the lost time, my spirit's recovered fresh resolve and resiliance after experiencing, first hand, that God can be trusted to be an ever present help in our hour of need.
With Divine intervention at our back (no pun intended) and the road to recovery in front, I know, that I know, that I know without a shadow of a doubt, that when we are circled by adversity on every side, God is like an eagle who circles around us, and helps us, the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirs up her nest, and flutters over her young, God himself spreads abroad his wings and bears us up with his pinions, to set our feet on solid ground. (Deut 31: 10-11 paraphrase mine)
Written with my sons consent
NB: ANYONE WISHING TO TAKE UP FASTING SHOULD DO SO AFTER RESEARCHING RELIABLE SOURCES, AND NOT WITHOUT DISCUSSING SENSIBLE GUIDELINES WITH A MENTOR, AND AFTER A MEDICAL CHECK UP.
05:05 AM
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