An 11-year old boy went for shopping in town with his six-year-old brother on a bicycle. On the way back at four in the evening, they had an accident. A drunk motorcycle driver lost control and hit the boys. Luckily, they sustained no injuries and didn’t have any scars or wounds whatsoever. As they continued with their journey home, the elder brother began to experience difficulty in breathing, but was too afraid to tell his parents of the earlier incident.

While having evening prayers, the boy’s breathing worsened and he became unconscious. His parents rushed him to hospital. On arrival the doctor recommended a bottle of saline water and an injection to be administered on the boy. At around nine, he vomited blood twice. The mother of the boy inquired from the doctor on duty about her son’s condition. Noticing the paleness of the boy and the blood vomit, the doctor suspected an internal injury and advised that he be transferred to a much better hospital.

He was taken to a multi-special hospital and was diagnosed with an internal bleeding caused by his spleen, which was cut into two. Surgery was the only remedy. They doubted if the boy would survive surgery since it had only fifteen percent survival. Since there were no other options, the surgery was done anyway and he was put in Intensive Care Unit for four weeks. After the four weeks, the doctors weren’t satisfied with his progress, so they transferred him to the general ward for one more week for a closer observation.

During that week, the doctor would ask the boy to try and sit up straight but he would faint as he tried. This condition continued for the whole week. On Friday of the fifth week, the doctors saw it best to discharge him as there was no progress on his health. They further added that he would only live for three weeks. The parents were heartbroken by the sad news and lost all hope on their child. That night, he requested for a delicious meal, his mother thought it was good if she considered all his demands as his last wishes. He had his meal and slept early. His mother knelt by his bed, kept her left hand on her chest and the right hand on her sons’ chest. She wrestled the whole night with God like Jacob, because that was her Jabbok and she prayed till dawn. Her prayer was “YOU ARE THE LORD OF THE LIVING AND NOT OF THE DEAD”, PLEASE ALLOW YOUR SERVANT TO LIVE. (Mk 12:27).

His mercies are renewed every morning, (Lam 3:22-23), and like the sun that rose upon Jacob, so it also arose upon the boy, (Gen 32:31). The next morning, as the doctors did their usual check-ups visits, they asked the boy to sit straight, to their surprise he did without any difficulty. He was rushed for a scan and it was a miracle. The doctors said that after the surgery there remained a pin hole, and they felt that the surgery failed. They had several attempts to repairs the hole and the scar but still it couldn’t work. And the reason why they had given him a maximum of three weeks to live was due to the major blood loss. Luckily, on that Saturday, they found a piece of flesh that was oozing blood but miraculously it had stopped a few hours earlier. This is an experience of a mother who wrestled with God beside his beloved son’s deathbed. She struggled that night with God like JACOB at the Jabbok and there he saw his God ‘PENUEL’. If we pray earnestly, the sun will rise and you will have a PENUEL EXPERIENCE. The boy in this story is me –