When our boys were small, we
used to camp in the redwoods nearly every summer. We got into camping through a program that
recruited pastors to serve for a week at time as summer chaplains in the
state parks. In exchange for leading a Sunday worship service, you had the use
of the chaplain campsite, including a large tent and all the gear.
The summer that Andy was seven
and Zach was four, we camped at Big Basin Redwoods near Santa Cruz. We arrived
at our campground on Tuesday, and on Saturday I made the rounds through the
other campsites, inviting people to the worship service the next morning at the
campfire center. Most people were cordial, but I had one strange, slightly unnerving,
encounter.
I met a woman who identified herself as part of a “New Age” church. Her interest in me and my family seemed excessive, to the point of being creepy. Later that afternoon she showed up at our campsite, and asked for a ride into town. My wife and I drove her to the grocery store, and then back to the campground.
That evening as I was starting a
fire to prepare supper, Dionne called me into the tent. Zach, who had
been playing happily most of the day, was lying on a cot, burning up with a
sudden fever. He was almost too hot to touch. I can’t prove that it had
anything to do with the cultic woman, but I believed then and am convinced to
this day that there was a supernatural attack upon us, and that it landed on
our small son.
We were scared. Zach was very sick, and we were a long way
from an E.R. The nearest small town was a half hour away. We decided first we
should pray for him.
Earlier in the day I had met several Christians in the camp—two
young single guys and a middle-aged couple. I asked them to pray with us, and we
all gathered in our tent. I cradled Zach in my arms and everyone laid hands on
his hot little frame. He was listless, his skin was still burning, and his eyes
were wild with fever.
I don’t remember what anyone said. I remember feeling a
sense of peace, but no overwhelming flood of spiritual power. After we said amen,
I laid Zach down on the cot again and Dionne and I thanked our new friends for
their prayers.
But despite the low-key atmosphere, God intervened in power.
Within minutes, literally, Zach was up and playing. As suddenly as the fever
came, it left. He was as cool and normal to the touch as before. The Lord
healed him.
So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. John 4:52-53
So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. John 4:52-53
