9.10.26

Have you ever prayed for a miracle?

About a month ago, my wife and I learned our child would be born with a rare heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. In layman’s terms, our child has a hole in their heart. This defect requires open-heart surgery after birth—and the thought of our baby getting their heart cut open is scary. Very scary.

So I’ve been praying for God to fix the problem and heal our child’s little heart.

The Bible says when you seek Jesus, you will find him. One morning recently, I found Jesus as he was healing the paralytic in the book of Mark. In this story, four friends carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing. Jesus looked at this helpless man lying on at mat on the floor and said something puzzling: “Son, your sins are forgiven” (Mark 2:5).

Seems like Jesus kind of missed something, right?

But I’ve learned that many times when we would zig, Jesus zags. You see, just like our baby, this man had an obvious problem—but there was a problem beneath the problem.

We are all born with brokenness and separation from God. You, me, the paralyzed man, and my child. Psalm 51 says, “Surely I am sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (v. 5).

Sin is more than just the bad things we do. It is the brokenness in us that separates us from a perfect and holy God. And none of us can fix that problem on our own.

But this is where the good news of Jesus begins.

Jesus came to meet our deepest need, not just the ones which seem obvious. He lived the perfect life we could never live, then willingly died on the cross to take the punishment for our sin. Because of this great love, anyone who puts their faith in Him can be forgiven and brought back into a relationship with God.

That’s why Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins before having him pick up his mat and walk home. Jesus knew his deepest need wasn’t simply to walk—it was to be living in relationship with the God who loved him most.

Our baby’s first problem was sin. And the God who loved our child enough to die for that sin is a God I can trust to patch the hole in their little heart.

So I still pray for a miracle. I still pray that God would heal our baby’s heart. But I have peace knowing my child’s deepest need has already been met by Jesus—the One who loves them most.