Failing Predictions

Failing Predictions

In honor of Dr. Edwin Timothy Childs

Ha! Dear doctor

I know you said

I fell into paraplegics,

I should be dead.

Indeed at least

I'll never leave my bed.

But did you know I walked today?

I walked from the bedroom

To hear those political Donkeys bray

on Television.

Ha! Good doctor

Did you hear the latest news?

I was able to bend down and put on my shoes.

In fact though you warned me

I'd never walk

I'm starting to think maybe

That was just talk

I walked in to see you!

Ha! Friend, doctor

Do you remember me?

I'm the dude who fell out of a tree!

Is this strapping young person

Who I'm supposed to be?

Well, maybe not strapping

But you know what I mean.

Supposed to be dead!

Knocked over the head!

There's nothing on earth I've heard funnier said.

Ha! Brother, doctor

Did I mention that these

My hands, fingers, and toes

Now function as ordinary as prose?

Did I say that I played

My beloved organ again the other day?

Did I fail to mention

Your most fatal prediction

Was little more than fiction

As good as that guy Dickens

Compared to what I play!

Ha! Forgive me, doctor

If I again indulge

In laudative repose

on your couch.

I just can't get over the fact

That this old man who'd gone "splat"

Is now using his fingers and toes!

My speech must coherently grow

In praise of that God who made you

A doctor among doctors

Only able to

Make unfailingly failing predictions!

The month was April and the flowers were about to bloom. Dr. Edwin T. Childs, professor of music at Moody, was trimming trees in his backyard. The ladder he was standing on slid away from the tree, and falling with it, Dr. Childs slammed his head against the wood deck below. The nerves on the right side of his brain suffered severe damage. Two months later Dr. Childs woke up in a hospital bed a paraplegic.

Since then years have passed, during which miracle after miracle has occurred, strengthening faith and bringing God glory. Dr. Childs has seen the best cranial specialists and movement therapists. He has gone from being a "lifeless blob," as he put it, to teaching and playing music, both of which were deemed nearly impossible for him. He wasn't supposed to ever leave his bed. The triumph of his testimony through this trail is uplifting.

Yet there is one thing that he, and those who know him best, must struggle with. While he has regained the ability to walk, teach, play the organ, and use his left arm and hand, Dr. Childs is not completely healed. In fact he only lacks movement in his left pinky finger. The question implied is unavoidable. God's goodness seems to be placed on the line.

In Dr. Child's words, "He [God] could have decided, "Well, you're putting your trust in acupuncture, I'll do something about it too." Wham! Completely healed. But it didn't happen. Instead He says, "I'm going to give you a test, Ed. Just because you can't get your little finger back, blame Me. It's all My fault that you can't do that. I gave you [movement in] three...you couldn't do any of them. And it's My fault you can't do that fourth one. You had a very fine acupuncturist and his goal was for you to get all four of them down. So, who are you going to blame? You have the finest neurological people working on your brain. You can't blame them, because I gave them the brains to be the very best. But you can blame Me, Ed. Go ahead.""

Blame God? That sounds familiar. Maybe we've read about that somewhere before. Dr. Childs, like Job, is far from blaming God. This is the real triumph of his testimony. More than the fact that he can move his leg and arm and three fingers, the fact that he can't move the fourth finger and yet still knows God is good is a powerful faith statement. It took him years of lying on his back in a hospital bed, being pushed around in a wheel chair, and sitting at the keyboard of an silent organ unable to play, to understand this. His answer to the eternal question of "why?" is: "God is good." His hope for the future is: "God is good." And his encouragement to other believers who struggle with this concept of God's goodness is: "Heaven? No brains required. Instead, new bodies will be given to us. God is good!"