“Don’t be so surprised”. As long as I live, I will remember those words… I was a fairly new Christian, having only been a church-goer for less than a year. My husband Neal and I had three very young children. Garrett was two, Eddie one, and Faith was just a baby. One Friday afternoon, as I was washing up the kids, I noticed a few little red spots on Faith… and then on Eddie. Within a very short period of time, they were multiplying. One conversation with the doctor later and it was confirmed… Chicken pox. Ugh!

At that time, I was a member of the church choir. So Sunday morning, after changing one more round of diapers and checking on the state of the chicken pox, I headed off to church to perform my choir duties, leaving Neal at home with the kids. I’ll be honest, I don’t remember what songs we sang that morning. I don’t even remember what the topic preached during service was. But I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine in the hallway outside the sanctuary after service was over. We were talking about people getting, or rather not getting miraculously healed by God.

As my friend and I stood in the hallway chatting about this, I looked at her and said, “If I ever saw anyone actually get instantly and miraculously healed, I’d be SO surprised”. She nodded in agreement and added that we shouldn’t be surprised. But the unfortunate truth was that we would be.

After the morning church activities were over, I went home to relieve Neal of his nurse duties. I picked up Eddie and changed his diaper, checking on the chicken pox. Thankfully, there were still only fifteen or so spots on him. His case was so mild that he was able to handle the chicken pox really well. Next was Faith’s turn to get her “once over”. I took her diaper off. No spots. I took off her jammies. No spots. I took off every stitch of clothing she had on. No spots. They were gone! I searched her skin from top to bottom. That morning when I left for church, she had at least thirty or so spots. Just a few short hours later… zero. There wasn’t even a faded mark where the spots used to be. Her skin was as perfect and beautiful as God created her to be. I was so confused, bewildered, and otherwise shocked. And then I heard this voice resonating somewhere in the center of my body, “Don’t be so surprised”.

God had healed my daughter of chicken pox. I was finally witness to God’s miraculous healing power. There was absolutely no denying it. Faith was healed. And there was no explanation outside of God. I made a promise to God at that moment that I would never be surprised again at seeing someone get healed. I would always be amazed… But never again surprised.