CHAPTER 2
Finger Trouble
Saturday, 24 February 2007 — While home alone, I went into our garage workshop to attend to some long-overdue DIY chores. A broken car window winder needed repair.
In the garage, there was 2 mm thick aluminum sheet metal, ideal for the repair if I cut two strips from it. I started making the first 100 mm long cut across the metal sheet. This was tedious, especially since two cuts were required and the hacksaw blade was blunt. I had no replacement blades handy and was eager to get the job done. As frustration from the senseless overexertion mounted, my mind wandered around for a better way. After a few more useless strokes, an answer arrived: Why not use the radial arm saw? A power tool would surely speed things up.
First I did a small test, and the powerful machine cut the aluminum with ease. Feeling confident, I then set up the workpiece for the actual cut but neglected one important rule: always secure your workpiece with clamps.
Instead, I held down the 100 mm wide sheet with my bare left hand, my palm and thumb pressing firmly downward on the flat sheet, and the furthest edge of the metal held tightly in check by my other four fingertips. My right hand operated the saw’s handle and switch. As before, the high-speed blade effortlessly cut into the metal. I eased the saw forward a few centimeters . . . KLAK!!
The saw blade caught on the sheet—instantly ripped from the downward pressure of my left hand. The force tore right through the remaining metal sheet, flung it to the other end of the workshop in a buckled state, and left my four fingertips throbbing in pain.
An initial check showed I still had fingertips, though it felt worse than it looked, especially for my middle finger, which was hit the hardest. My relief evaporated as I watched my fingertips become red beneath the skin. Then the middle fingertip went blue, then yellow around the edges. While I stood watching, the fingertip turned black. This all happened within just a few dreadful minutes. I had been careless and stupid. I stood there gazing at that blackened fingertip, thinking about frostbitten mountaineers losing their extremities. I could perhaps still lose my fingertip which, by then, had completely lost feeling. My alarm at such thoughts quickly turned into dread. No, no, no, no . . . I need all my fingertips, especially for typing on the computer!
I turned to God in desperate prayer. “Lord God, please forgive my foolish negligence with the power tool.” Then, through a simple request, I asked Him for healing. Moments after waiting for His answer, the Lord spoke in His soft, gentle voice: “I give you healing.”
Even though I was most eager for healing, God’s Word didn’t instantly hit home. As if to help me properly value the Word He just gave, I was shown a vision of me receiving instant healing from an earthly physician for my injured fingers. At that moment, I knew I should be at least as thankful to God as to that imaginary physician. Then I realized that no physician could give me what God just gave me, and I should be exceedingly thankful!
All dread left me and a massive grin replaced the grave concern on my face. Instead, I started loudly thanking and praising God for the healing which He just gave to me through His Word. I didn’t stop but kept on and on, praising while grinning and thanking God, knowing right there and then—for a fact—that my fingertips were healed. I had much to be thankful for because God had just revealed His truth from heaven. I was seeing God’s will as if it was real—at that very moment—and I was elated. The Hebrews chapter 11 scripture regarding faith jumped to mind to underscore what was happening.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report.
Hebrews 11:1-2 — Webster’s 1833 Revision
For sure God had given me a good report, through His Word and a vision!
I was about five minutes into singing praises and verbally expressing my heartfelt thanks to God for this miracle when—right before my eyes—the black fingertip turned back to a deep pink and sensation returned.
When my family arrived home, I was still in the garage examining my fingers. A little bit of reddish pink remained on the fingertips with slight pain. I told them nothing because the healing had not yet fully manifested; however, I kept on quietly thanking the Lord for healing. Later that evening all the redness and pain was gone. With my fingertips fully restored, I testified to my wife about what had happened.
Medical sources say the red, blue, and black discoloration under the skin is from damaged blood vessels and it can take up to two weeks or more for full recovery. My fingers had mostly recovered within a few minutes, and a few hours later there was no visible or internal sign of my injury.
How awesome is our God! When He speaks His Word and we receive and fully believe, great things happen. I’m so stoked even while typing this testimony that I just want to shout:
OUR GOD IS ALIVE!