While practicing with our Stake Choir, I found an opportunity to visit with my sitting companion.  She is blind from birth and clearly fearless.  She sings regularly with the Stake Choir, but I had never sat by her before.  As we visited, she told me about a certain miracle she had experienced.

As I reflect on our short conversation, I can see why she would share such a personal experience.  Her story was her testimony; and most likely one of many experiences that encourage that testimony.  It occurred to me, we should all be aware of our own miracles and testimonies and share them at opportune times.  She mentioned this story had been written up in a book and I could read all the details there.  I went home and ordered the book immediately (I love Amazon!).  After reading her story, I am so grateful to have not only sat by her, but opened my mouth and ears.

Linda, this lovely sister I sat next to, went up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with some friends from her singles ward, to go on a river trip.  Now, remember, I told you she was blind from birth and fearless.  On the way home, she developed a severe headache that wouldn’t go away, and she began vomiting.  A friend, who was a nurse, knew something was seriously wrong and demanded an ambulance come up from Utah to pick her up and take her to a Utah hospital.

Unbeknownst to Linda, when they pulled her out of the car and first realized what was happening, a Bishop happened to see the girls and offered to administer a blessing, which he did, blessing Linda with a full recovery and a normal life.

The neurosurgeon diagnosed an aneurysm and the prognosis was not very good.  However, for some reason, the blood vessels, which had come apart, put themselves back together again, forming a blood clot.  With medication, the clot dissolved sufficiently that no surgery was necessary.  It was a good two months before she was able to return to work.

During those two months, one in the hospital, and one in Ogden, at her parents’ home, her Salt Lake ward visiting teachers visited her once a week leaving her with tapes of the Sunday Meetings she was missing.

Linda had been a devout ham radio operator, but after this she was afraid to get back on for fear of forgetting all the jargon, names, and call letters.  Her ham radio friends encouraged her, and again, showing that fearless nature, she began communicating on the radio with her friends.  She even had to relearn Morse Code.  When she told me this, I could hear in her voice what a monumental feat that was for her.

It was such a gift for me to hear this sweet sister’s miracle life and testimony.  What if I hadn’t introduced myself?  Because she is blind, she would never have known.  I would have missed out terribly.  Are any of us that excited to share our own miracles with one another?  Do we even recognize our own miracles?  And what do you think about her visiting teachers?

It makes me pause in my thinking…

(If you want to read testimonies that will bring tears to your eyes, and fill your heart, find a copy of Touched by the Spirit, compiled by Joy Robinson.  Linda’s story is just one of  those mentioned in the book.)