Ludick again...

When you wish you’d get an opportunity to share a testimony it never seems to happen. When you want to go and ask if you can share in a corporate meeting, the timing always seems to be wrong. Today was one of those days for me – where I bawled my eyes out in both the morning and evening services because of God’s awesome goodness in my life!
 
Many people know about our youngest son Ludick and all the words that have been spoken over him, many of which God has done in his little life already.
 
And yet …
 
I have no idea how it works but it seems that whenever one of my family is sick, whether I pray for them, take them to the doctor, get them medicine, or do nothing at all, it takes them the same amount of time to get better – normally around four to seven days.
 
Also, I make so many mistakes with my eldest son. He is only three, and just wants to “jol” and enjoy life, playing with his toys etc. And yet, I lose it so easily with him. Or whenever I get upset with my wife I feel like such an idiot and am too stupid to just say, “I am sorry”.
 
Everyone has twenty four hours in a day. Some people seem to get it right to spend so much of that time with God. As for me, my meagre ten to thirty minutes with Him some mornings are very precious to me. (Yes of course I pray during the rest of the day.)
 
I feel like a bad husband, a bad father … and then there’s work. Work just gets in the way of my hobbies; and the money… well, it’s not exactly rolling in. I don’t drive the car I want to. I don’t stay in the house I want to. I don’t always recognise or acknowledge Him in my life. I allow my thoughts and emotions to get the better of me and so often feel like a fraud and a failure. It seems as if God neither hears nor answers my prayers.
 
And yet …
 
Despite how we feel about ourselves, He often surprises us with something that touches our hearts like nothing else can.
 
I’m not into birthdays. I’ve never liked them. I don’t know why people get so excited about them. For me, it’s probably because I’m getting older, and who really wants to get older? But on my birthday, earlier this month, God sent one of those surprises my way. Last year only the people that had to phone me did – like my mom and dad, sisters and so on. This year it seems that everybody I know phoned, smsed or facebooked me. How they all knew it was my birthday is anyone’s guess. But that was not the real surprise – it was just the cherry on top of the real miracle.
 
The previous day Anja, my beautiful and patient wife, called me to say that she had taken Ludick to have his eyesight and hearing tested. We were originally told that he would be able to see, but very poorly, and that he would probably not be able to recognise us. Now that I do not understand about God – that one’s son would not be able to recognise one. In terms of his hearing, I can’t really remember what prognosis the doctors had given, but it was probably bad.
 
The results of the day were not like that at all. The doctor said that there is nothing wrong with his eyes. He sees normally and his hearing is also quite normal.
 
THAT is the best surprise gift I could have got for my birthday! But that’s not all … He is turning one this month (after he was originally given only 5 minutes to live). He has started to sit up on his own and to eat droëwors, rice biscuits and other things he couldn’t eat a week ago. He’s so tactile that before that he would gag if we gave him anything not as smooth as the smoothest yoghurt.
 
My love for him, as his dad, just keeps on growing and we look forward to dedicating him and celebrating God’s goodness in his life on his first birthday!
 
Thanks to all of you, our friends, who keep us in your thoughts and prayers but yes, above all, praise be to our God Jesus Christ! It obviously makes me excited to see the next thing He is going to do, not just in Ludick’s life but in all our lives – big or small.
 
Thys