Hurricane of Love

Chapter 20

A Divine Appointment

The next afternoon Beth’s close friend, Sherry Dickey, came to the hospital. Sherry is the type of friend who always wants to help. She had taken Beth to one or two of her chemo treatments and visited her in the hospital. Beth was always happy to see her. Kirstyn, Kelsey and I were also there that day, so Kirstyn suggested that I take a break to get out of the hospital for a while. She told me I should go to the health club and sit in the sauna and just relax. It sounded like a good idea, so I decided to take her up on it.

As you probably know by now, I tend to be a very emotional person. I was trying hard, however, to be strong whenever I was in Beth's hospital room. I didn't want to break down in front of Beth or the girls. I was doing pretty well up to this point, but as I walked toward the elevators that afternoon, my emotions began to well up inside of me. When the elevator doors opened, I was relieved to see that it was empty. I stepped in, and as soon as the doors closed, I bent over and started to weep. When the doors opened on the first floor, I was still crying. I got off the elevator and leaned against a wall and just put my head in my hands.

Suddenly I heard a voice calling, “Mr. Wheeler! What is the matter?” I looked up and saw Dr. Kind jogging toward me. He came up and gave me a big hug (something very rare for a medical doctor to do in a hospital).

I looked at him and said, “Dr. Kind, this is overwhelming. My wife has been fighting stage 4 Cancer for almost three years, and now we are in a tough stage. I'm worried, and I need a miracle. I just hope that God hears my prayers.”

I’ll never forget what he said to me. He looked me squarely in the eye and said, “Mr. Wheeler because you want to know if God hears your prayers, I will tell what just happened to me. I finished eating my lunch in the cafeteria a few minutes ago. I was hurrying to go up to the second floor to make my rounds because I have several patients that I need to check on, and I try never to be late. As I arrived right here to get on this elevator, something told me to go back to the cafeteria. I walked all the way back, and when I got there I thought to myself, why did I come back here? I need to get to my patients. As I started walking back, I saw you get off the elevator, and I knew why I was delayed. God cares enough about you to change my schedule so that I was right here right now to tell you that He cares about you very much. He hears every one of your prayers, and He knows what is going on.”

He then said, “Mr. Wheeler I know this is extremely difficult for you and your family. However, your wife knows Jesus, and you know where she is going if she doesn't survive. God can heal her here on earth, or he can give her a new body in heaven. Either way, she will be healed, and you will see her again.” He gave me another hug and then got on the elevator.

As I walked out of the hospital, I realized that God had just performed a miracle. He delayed Dr. Kind enough so that he could be there when I needed to be reminded that God loved us, and He was still with us.

Some people might call that meeting a coincidence. I believe that God delayed Dr. Kind. It is highly unusual for a medical doctor to hug and encourage a family member in the hallway of a hospital. It doesn’t happen every day, but it happened on the day that I needed it. I believe it was a divine appointment. It was the first of several miracles I would see during the next thirty days.

Beth had a brain scan the next day, and it confirmed what Dr. Kind thought. She had not suffered a stroke. Her brain was fine. I was with her when they did the scan. As we were waiting, I leaned down, kissed her and told her how much I loved her. She then asked me to lean back down because she wanted to say something. She whispered in my ear, “Cakies, you need some breath mints because you have really bad breath.” We both had a good laugh from that, and I was happy to see that Beth hadn't lost her sense of humor through it all.