Douw’s story moved me, no, still moves me:

In 2005, my family’s lives changed irrevocably on the beautiful Sunday morning of Easter weekend when our car ran off the road near Hopetown and overturned. And my youngest of four daughters was left a quadriplegic at the age of 18.

What a traumatic experience!

She was a keen netball player for the first team, which was at the beginning of her matric year. After two weeks in the hospital in Kimberley, she was flown to the spinal unit in
Cape Town. She was paralysed from her shoulders down and had no finger activity.

After eight months in hospital, she was so weak that she had to complete her matric in mathematics and science in two years. She was able to achieve university exemption. Although Stellenbosch University admitted her, she wanted to study physiology, but the relevant department couldn’t accommodate her because of her disability.

In 2010, I had the opportunity to come and work in the USA. My wife took on the task of full-time caregiving. My daughter finished her degree here at a university, after which she also completed her master’s degree. Now she has two months left before completing her doctoral studies.

What I want to convey with this is that if we as a family did not believe we were in the Lord’s hands, we would not have been able to make it. Oddly enough, on the last day of that Easter weekend holiday, my daughter had to write a school assignment about hands. She wrote about God’s hands protecting her after the accident.

If we look back over the last 17 years after the accident in particular, we can see the intervention of the Lord in our lives on so many occasions. We have several examples of that as evidence. How can we doubt that He is there for us? His mercy is infinite!

Wow! What an incredible example of surrendering yourself into God’s hands. Surrender to hitting the ball that life throws at you for a six, even if you only have limited use of one hand. What a story this family’s life tells the rest of us!

¹⁰Take the old prophets as your mentors. They put up with anything, went through everything, and never once quit, all the time honoring God.

We don’t even have to look that far back to the men or women of the old days. Right here around us are people who do not get discouraged but press their hands even tighter into God’s hand, come what may!

May others say the same of us one day.

Scripture
James 5:7-12

Reflection
What does your faith look like?
Are you clinging to God?
Is your hand firmly in God’s hand, no matter your circumstances?

Prayer
Father, thank you for examples of people who press their hand more firmly into Your hand, because sometimes I falter when life throws curve balls at me. Help me to live in such a way that I will be an example for struggling others. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.