A few weeks ago my bff Jolie told me about a story from the testimony of Kim Phuc. All may not know her by name, but she is very well known as the "girl in the picture".
Kim went to her church and gave her testimony of being in a village that was bombed by Napalm during the Viet Nam war. While there are many twists in her testimony, not the least of which is her conversion to Christ and her defection from her homeland, one story that is the most powerful to me is told of the first few days after the incident that caused her fame.
After her tiny body was over 50% burned by the bombing, the hospital where she was taken was obviously ill equipped to handle anyone in her condition. Modern day medicine would be challenged! Kim gave testimony to a pastor that during the first few days, her situation seemed hopeless, and a doctor directed that she be put into the morgue. Though still alive, there was no real hope for her survival, and "why burden an already over taxed staff ?" must have been part of his thoughts. For four days she lay in a morgue-unconscious but with a still beating heart- left to die an eventual and certain death.
During these same days her family continued their search for her. They eventually located her little lifeless body, and employed any and all measures to help her. After over a year in the hospital, and over a dozen surgeries, Kim returned home, “hoping to be a normal kid again.”
After her schooling, marriage, and defection to Canada, she had managed to heal emotionally from most of her scars as well, but this one thought still haunted her. How could she have been left to die in a morgue? For four days she was neglected, untended, unfed, and unconscious- Why!?
It was after giving this testimony in a church that a man came up to her, a doctor himself, and asked to speak with Kim for a moment. He went on to explain that it might have been that time in the morgue that actually saved her life. Had she been in the hospital, well meaning nurses and doctors would have tended her and done more damage to her already fragile body. Napalm is is a merciless killer, and in the closed off and cool morgue, her metabolism was slowed and nervous system less irritated. She was actually put in the morgue to die, but God meant it to save her life!
After hearing this from the Doctor, waves of thankfulness and faith must have flooded over her! Because she did not understand, the wicked one saw an opportunity to gain a foothold of doubt and anger in her. God was and is and always will be merciful- no matter how it looks to us!
This testimony told second hand to me has been so powerful in my life. I can always know regardless the situation, God is in control! No matter how my eyes and ears and heart perceive a situation, I must realize I do not have full disclosure on it!
As I am reading in Job, in the first two chapters this has been reinforced to me. While Satan approached God, it was God who suggested Job be tested, and it was God who said to Satan in 2:3- " and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause." And then in Job 2:5 Satan says "But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face." Both God and Satan acknowledge it is by the hand of God that Job (and we) are "smitten".
God is sovereign, in control, and completely to be trusted. I hope to remember this during the times of my trial. When I am in my "morgue"- for the day will come that I surely will be- I want to testify of the goodness of God, and "sin not".
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
1Peter 4:12-13
1Peter 4:12-13
