One of the highlights of our trip back to California happened the other evening. We witnessed two miracles upclose. You may remember that I wrote about two college-age brothers from our church with severe brain trauma after a horrific car accident just before Christmas. Well, we had dinner with these young men and their parents the other night. Yes, that’s right. I have goosebumps recalling how God protected them and healed them. They showed us pictures of their car and it was truly miraculous that anyone survived that crash.

We rejoiced with their stories. A friend woke up at 4:00 the morning of their accident, at the exact time of the crash, feeling compelled to pray for the boys. Some people they’d never met drove past the accident and prayed for whoever was involved. Weeks later, in Spain of all places, these people met a family who shared about an accident in California. Turns out they were all praying for the same boys. The oldest boy came out of his coma first and kept the night shift in stitches. Each night, he spoke entirely in a different language – Swiss German, Spanish, or with a British accent. But he doesn’t know Spanish; he was mimicking lines verbatim from Happy Feet. He has no memory of those linguistic nights. The youngest son caught more of the impact of the crash and was in a coma three weeks longer. His memory ends abruptly two days before the accident. He had to call his friends at college to fill in the missing pieces – what he did those last two days and who took him to the airport the day of the accident.

Their story inspired people all over the world, many of whom they don’t know, to pray fervently for them. But God didn’t need these prayers to do His job. Prayer is a mystery to me. We’re told to pray and that prayer is effective and that God is moved by our prayers. But we don’t always get what we pray for. And when we do get the result we want, our prayers didn’t do it. God did it. He alone healed these two brothers. I suspect He has something more in store for these two young men. He used their trauma to galvanize His church to demonstrate love and pray fervently and grow in their ability to believe Him for the impossible. And I believe He’ll use their story to draw many to His Son.