About two years ago my friend Raechel informed me she was pregnant with her second child. Raechel had difficulty getting pregnant, so she was ecstatic. In time, through sonogram, it was discovered that Raechel and Joel would have a son joining them and their daughter. Such joy! That great joy soon was overshadowed by a tearful revelation. Liam had club feet.
Many of us prayed for God to straighten Liam’s feet before he was born. That did not happen, and I am not here to explain the “why” of that. None of us knows. Liam was faced with a long, painful battle in order to walk.
Liam had his first casting at two weeks old, and then a series of weekly castings for five weeks. Another surgery was required at seven weeks, followed by double plaster/fiberglass casts for two weeks. These casts covered the feet and went all the way up the thigh. After a week cast-free, Liam was fitted for a Ponseti brace which he wore twenty-three hours a day for three months, followed by three months wearing the brace just at night. Through pain, lots of waiting and continuing to strengthen his legs, Liam is now walking at seventeen and a half months old. Though he had been bound by casts, and immobilized by braces, Liam never gave up trying to walk. His parents shared a video of him running around the room grinning and laughing. Liam’s mourning has turned to dancing.
Liam’s story is all of our stories in one way or another. There are periods of mourning, and seasons of “how long, O Lord?” Many of us have faced things that tried to stop our walk, or pain while trying to walk, or things that slowed our walk. Like Liam, we must never give up. We don’t understand all things, and it might seem our situation is changing too slowly. It might seem that we will never have joy, but according to the Word of God, “Joy comes in the morning.”
There is healing beyond pain and the things that seem to immobilize us. Night will give way to morning, and it could even be today. This could be the day of great rejoicing for you.
Don’t give up. Like Liam, with great laughter, we can dance and proclaim, “Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing!”
“You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.” Psalm 30:11