Paul Wood says that the headaches were so bad that he couldn’t walk down a hallway without using the walls for support. X-rays showed a malignant brain tumor was the problem, although his neurosurgeon thought an aneurysm might have caused bleeding on the brain. His surgery was abruptly canceled after new x-rays revealed the tumor had vanished.
Medical professionals refer to this phenomena as “spontaneous remission.” One day the patient is dying of some incurable malady, and the next day has completely recovered. Statistically speaking, survival is not the expected outcome. When a person has what is normally considered a fatal illness or injury, we should naturally expect that person to die within a relatively short period of time, or at least have surgery or other treatment to save that person’s life. There is no natural explanation for a tumor (and all symptoms) to simply disappear. But rarely, it does happen.
According to the pastor of Gravity Church, Paul had inspired his fellow congregation members by saying, “No matter what happens to me, I’m going to be okay. I trust God.” Nothing that anyone could possibly say would ever convince Paul Wood that he had not received a miraculous cure from God, facilitated by the power of prayer.
Skeptics might argue that Paul’s condition was inaccurately diagnosed and his doctors were incompetent, or might look for some other way to explain the inexplicable, but while Paul’s recovery might be the exception and not the rule, it’s hardly the only exception. Miracles appear to happen relatively frequently, once we start looking for them.
For example, on May 26, 2010, Jill Finley was in a coma after her heart stopped beating and showing little if any sign of brain activity. Doctors asked Jill’s husband Ryan for permission to remove her from life-support, given that she had only one or two percent chance of recovery and would likely remain in a vegetative state until her eventual death. He reluctantly agreed, given the grim prognosis, and doctors “pulled the plug.” But Jill Finley didn’t die. The doctors had warned Ryan about “the last rally” that often happens when death is imminent, where the body suddenly regains function and the person might begin to speak or move prior to expiring. When she became restless and began to speak, he assumed that’s what was happening, but when she asked to be taken to dinner at one of her favorite restaurants, he began to suspect that something else was happening.
In fact, Jill recovered to the point where she was able to visit the TODAY show and tell co-host Meredith Viera, “It’s truly a miracle that I’m here and talking to you today.”
Theists and atheists alike should accept the evidence that miracles have occurred whether we like to admit it or not. The mere fact our universe exists is a miracle. Life itself is a miracle. Cokeville was a miracle. The disappearance of Paul Wood’s brain tumor was a miracle. Jill Finley’s visit on the TODAY show was a miracle.
Miracles happen. You can choose whether or not to give God the credit.
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