I was talking to my mom yesterday about my great-grandmother's story. I'd heard it long ago but had forgotten the details.....

My great-grandmother was a practicing buddhist and spirit worshipper who lived in Malaysia. She was one of the wives of her husband, I think there were 3.

As she got older, she began to go partially blind. She went to the hospital for what should have been a simple procedure to help her eyes, but she fell while in the hospital and was knocked unconscious.

She was in a coma for a while, being fed through tubes, and bathed. My parents were Christians, but had only been Christians for 1 year. A friend of theirs, the one who had taken them to church for the first time, kept visiting my great-grandmother in the hospital. One week he brought in people from their church to sing and worship and praise God in the hospital. They knew she was unconscious and couldn't hear them, but they felt that was what they should do. A couple days after they had been worshipping Jesus in her hospital, SHE WOKE UP!

BUT HERE COMES THE CRAZY PART! She woke up and said in her Chinese language, "I saw Jesus". "I want to become a Christian". But the thing is, we're talking about a woman who has never read the bible, living in a country that wasn't heavily exposed to Christianity. How would she know it was Jesus she saw?! But she was so sure.

Not only that, even though she was blind, she miraculously recovered and could walk again! She went around her whole neighbourhood and talked about Jesus! And at 80 something years old, she testified of her healing and her vision of Jesus to 300 people! The man that brought his church friends to worship God in her hospital continued to visit her and bring her audio tapes of the bible, and read to her since she couldn't see. His love and commitment to her, a old woman that he didn't have any obligation to, brought my mom's whole family to knowing Jesus. Not through preaching, but through love lived out.

My parents then immigrated to Canada, and my mom's prayer in those days was that before my great-grandma died, that she'd be able to see again. And yes! Another miracle, in her last days (or weeks I'm not sure) her sight was miraculously restored! Prayer answered, not medically possible, but a medical miracle!

Being reminded of this story yesterday really brought about a sense of gratefulness and awe of God in me. God knows everyone by name, doesn't matter how rich or poor, educated or simple, young or old. He has a plan and a purpose beyond what we could ask, think or even dream of.