Have you gone through challenging times, wondering where to turn? In those difficult times in life, God has been my hope. As a small boy, I learned that God is always with us. And I sensed God's presence not only in church but also in the family, and, later, in friendships and marriage. Meditating on the scripture, The Healing of a Paralytic (Luke 5:17-26), I saw myself in the different characters in that scripture during life: a Pharisee, judging others, someone in the crowd, observing and listening, and many times being one of the men carrying the paralytic on the stretcher. During the crises of life, I was the paralytic on the stretcher, including both figuratively and literally during the largest single crisis of my life--my nine-month ordeal with COVID-19, going to death's door and back! It was others who carried me on that stretcher, and I saw God's hope through those that were there to carry me. Whether it was the woman I hadn't known before, tapping me on the shoulder asking how my mother was doing and telling me she was praying for her, to an entire church in Bloomingburg, praying for her, and, many years later, for me when I was in the grips of COVID-19, God's hope shines through people. I will be eternally grateful to all the women and men in the medical field, many of them are in this book, and some who I may never know their names. They were and continue to be God's vessels of hope for me. As are the many who prayed, locally, around the country, and the world. With joy upon my return home, Dr. Gulati, my local doctor declared it "nothing short of a Christmas miracle."
