and HE found him...in the hospital

God works in mysterious ways that we never know, because He is God, and He often catches us off guard.







I have a story to tell.... 01:30 am, Christmas Day 2008.





I was working on a night shift in ICU. That wasn't really my shift, but out of good will I volunteered to cover my Aussie colleague who just has a young baby , obviously she would deserve to spend her Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with her family.





So I was working. The clock ticked past 12 am , and hurray, Merry Christmas!





There was a 40 year old man who was brought in the ICU for his badly damanged kidneys for investigation. This man is noted to be a long term IV drug user.





Somehow I felt very burdened for him. I felt compelled to tell him about Christ.





It so happened (I believe it was a divine appointment) that he needed short term dialysis for his stuffed kidneys, and my job was to insert a dialysis catherter into his groin.





So I was all scrubbed up, and started preparing his groin for the procedure. Then I casually started a conversation with him revolving around Christmas.





Finally I asked, 'Do you know the real meaning of Christmas?'





'Yea, about the birth of Christ into the world. '





Wow..this man seems to know a lil bit, I thought. Then I went on sharing the Gospel with him, and told him that no matter what sins he had commited in the past, God will forgive him and give him a new start, as long as he believes.





At this point, he was stunned, speechless, and his eyes turned red and teary.





A brief moment of silence.





Then he said,' I can't believe God sent me a Christian doctor....' and he repeated that twice.





I didn't know what he meant by now, being filled with the Spirit (hmm...how come I felt as though I was the apostle in the NT? ), I started telling him,





'God is not done with you, that's why you are still alive today after all the drug abuse. And He has planned a great destiny with abundant blessings for you, what happened in the past is in the past, and your life in future is not determined by the past failures. Today is your day of breakthrough and He is calling you to turn to Him, and He will renew you ...etc etc'





(I can't remember exactly what I said, all the more it proves that it was the Spirit speaking through me)





Then this patient started tearing.





He told me he used to go to church, and he still believed in God. Just that he'd been back and forth addiction to the drugs, and he felt he was not good enough to be a Christian and God would not be pleased with him. He tried and tried many times but he failed, so he gave up all together.





Even though he thought God must have forgotten about him, he still secretly hoped that God would one day reach down to him and help him....





He continued to tear and said, 'HE has not forgotten about me, HE has found me even in the hospital, by sending you to tell me this. '





He kept saying this, 'HE has found me even in the hospital...'





At the end he decided to repent and turn back to God, and learn to rely on God's strength to get rid of his drug addiction.





He said it himself, 'Salvation is by grace. '





I grabbed his address, and told him I 'd write to him and pray for him so that he's not alone. He said, 'No, I am not alone, God has found me agaín. '





I prayed for him before I left, and gave him the chuch contact details.





Hmmm





I am really touched. Really really touched. Through this I have seen it with my own eyes the power of His grace, and experienced with my own heart the love of God. There is no sin so big that God will not forgive. There is no distance so far away that God cannot reach us. No matter how far we run from Him and try to hide, He will find us. He never forgets.



He has found him, even in the hospital.