Miracles Happen Today

c.

Dr Chris Knippers, a California-based clinical psychologist, believes in miracles. His parents, former missionaries in Hawaii, expected a miracle in Chris's life, even though the doctors said nothing could save him.

One day in 1963, when Chris was only eleven years old, he and a friend named John were hiking though a southern California canyon, when, their conversation was suddenly drowned out by a roaring sound above them. They looked up to see huge boulders, about four feet in diameter, rushing toward them. Chris pushed John out of the way, but before Chris could dive to safety, he was hit by a boulder that bounced off the cliff behind them. It knocked him down, and a second boulder hit him on the left side of the head.

A few minutes later, John regained consciousness, and saw Chris lying nearby, blood oozing out around the boulder holding him prisoner. In desperation, without thinking about the impossibility of what he was doing, the twelve-year-old lifted the massive weight to free his friend. When he saw Chris, he found a gaping hole in the left side of his head.

It wasn't until much later - when three men tried and failed to budge the rock John had moved - that the impact of his action was realized. It was miracle number one. But it was only the beginning.

Chris was taken to a nearby hospital where doctors told his parents that the boy urgently needed a brain surgery, but they didn't have a neurosurgeon on hand. So they rushed him in an ambulance to a bigger hospital which was 20 miles away. The ambulance driver doubted whether there would be a qualified doctor to help him as it was a Sunday. Would Chris last that long? Would there be a doctor at hand?

Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly to those who believe in miracles), a neurosurgeon was present at the hospital. After four hours of surgery, the doctor said: "All I could do was piece together as much of the boy's skull as possible to stop the bleeding. His brain was completely crushed." However, he held out little hope that Chris would live through the night.

"I believe in miracles," Chris's mother told the doctor. "I have been healed myself. We will pray for God to heal our son."

"If you do any praying," the doctor warned, "pray that your boy dies. If he lives, he will be a hopeless vegetable for the remainder of his life."

Undaunted by the doctor's prognosis, the couple called up their friends all day to pray for their son. Chris's name was spoken that night in a variety of languages, in dozens of churches, by hundreds of voices.

Chris lived through that night and the next and then the next. Three days after the operation, he walked up. Another miracle.

It was a miracle, the doctors admitted, that Chris didn't go into diabetic shock after the accident or during the
operation. It was also a miracle that in the next two weeks the doctors had no difficulty in regulating his blood sugar.