Against all Hope

Against all hope, when I was born, despite the decree from the doctors to my mother that I would die and there was nothing they could do about it, my mother took me home with hope in her heart that God would show her a way to keep me alive. Born in 1959, with a severe cleft palate and many other complications, even the leading doctor in the field at the time did not know how to close the large hole that I had been born with (no nose, no palate, no upper lip). They could not find a way to feed me and thus in my first few weeks of life, I was slowly dying. As my mother prayed, she was confident that God was putting in her heart the promise that I was to live and that He had a special plan for my life on this earth.

Thus, in faith she took me home and with her nursing skills and God-given creativity, built a device to place over my face allowing me to suck and suc- cessfully drink milk. After several weeks of building up my strength, I was able to face my first surgery which my mother demanded the doctor perform. Though he thought I would die on the table, God had other plans. Here I am today, over fifty years later as a women’s re- treat speaker, author and worship leader. “Against all hope, my Mom in hope believed and so I became her daughter, a women’s retreat speaker to many nations!”

I don’t say this to compare my story at all to one of the most incredible events in the history of mankind and one of the most faith- filled men who ever lived. However, there is a tremendous lesson of faith that God wants us to learn from Abraham that we can apply to our lives. Abraham had such great faith because he believed in the Greatness of his God. When we trust what God says about His power over our circumstances or our own or others’ perceived abilities, then we discover that “against all hope” amazing things can happen!

-Sue Corl (from her Devotional More Beautiful by the Day)