A Thanksgiving Miracle

 

Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour

 and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.

                                                                                    — Revelation 7:12

 

Tim McCormick was home, 10 days after heart bypass surgery. Just before dawn, he heard car doors thud shut, and an engine start. He knew someone had been messing with his son's truck in the driveway.

 

The father of six, ages 14 to 26, padded out and saw that the radio had been ripped out. Things were strewn all over the seat.

 

He heard a noise down the street. Men were breaking into an elderly neighbor's car.

 

McCormick padded down closer and called, "I got your license number. You're not going to get away with this!"

 

They rushed to their car to get away. He saw a hand coming up with something silver in it. He was looking down the barrel of a gun. It fired.

 

"The worst thing is, my wife Jinnie had to see me get shot," McCormick said. "She started praying, 'Oh, dear Lord, our Father, save my husband! Help my husband!'"

 

 

The second bullet jammed in the mechanism.

 

But the first one hit McCormick in the thigh, shattering his femoral artery. That's the second largest artery in the body, a mainliner to the heart. McCormick said when it gets taken out, it's like taking the plug out of a water bottle and holding it upside down.

 

He fell to the ground, blood whooshing out of his body. Jinnie covered him. As neighbors poured out of their houses in response to the gunshot, she asked one to call 911, then told the others, "We're all going to join hands and pray."

 

McCormick said, "When I was surrounded by 20 of our neighbors, Jinnie and I saw angels. They were large and powerful and gentle. We knew they were there to protect me, not to take me."

 

The ambulance arrived in four minutes. Police saw how much blood there was in the street, and starting thinking homicide.

 

The ambulance raced to a trauma center. Jinnie hopped into a squad car with a police officer to follow. They joined hands and started praying.

 

Up ahead in the ambulance, Tim's femoral artery suddenly clotted. The driver later said that in 31 years, he had never seen that. What's more, as a post-op heart patient McCormick was on blood thinners, which deter clotting.

 

The artery stayed closed 'til they got to the hospital, then reopened. The leg went without blood for about five hours.

 

The police officer said later that in 26 years, he had never seen anyone survive that injury. Doctors told Jinnie her husband probably wouldn't make it, and even if he did, they might have to take his leg.

 

She made a few calls. Within hours, prayers were going up all over the country, including many people he didn't even know.

 

He was in surgery for 5 1/2 hours. They put in a bypass graft of Gore-Tex tube, hip to knee. The heart surgeon had chosen an artery from Tim's arm to do the heart surgery. That left the longer leg artery in place for this emergency. Otherwise, he'd have been a goner.

 

McCormick said, "Because they knew what they were doing, I got to keep my leg, and Jinnie got to keep me."

 

And we get an uplifting message for Thanksgiving.

 

McCormick said, "It's been revealed to us that things aren't just luck and things don't happen just by chance. Evil can happen any time, any place. But if you look at it very closely, God prepares you to face that evil. He knew this was going to happen to me about a year and a half ago, and He started lining up things in my life to help me stop these guys.

 

What about Thanksgiving? "Well, we've had it every day since then," McCormick said with a smile. Their home was to be the scene of a feast that would go far beyond the food.

 

Amen. A great day, with thanks and tears in equal measure.

 

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow . . . praise Him for miracles, here below. †