I just wanted to get you a bit of a health update. In late February, both my wife and I were pretty excited when I got a call asking if I was available last minute for a knee replacement operation. I suspect there had been a last-minute cancellation.

It was providential. My knee was steadily worsening, and all the more remarkable considering I had only been on the list for a full replacement for just a year and four months. Today, most are told the wait list is now four years for a new knee.

I immediately said yes, and the next week was a world wind of tests and picking up the needed equipment for my extended recovery.

My knee had started acting up several years back. I went for arthroscopic day surgery, which did help. But it didn’t last and when the pain returned a few years later, the doctor told me that knee replacement was the next option.

Now over the years, I had prayed for God to heal my knee, but due to my lack of faith it never happened.

But though I failed the faith test, God didn’t abandon me.

I remember the young father who asked Jesus’ disciples to deliver the man’s son from an evil spirit. But failed. Failure is part of life.

And when the man asked if Christ would be able to deliver the boy.

²³ But Jesus said to him, “‘If You can?’ All things are possible for the one who believes.” ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:23-24 NASV)

Even though the father questioned Christ’s ability to deliver the boy and was literally full of unbelief, Jesus did not abandon the man to his doubt.

This is not necessarily the path God would have us take, but our Father understands, cares, and will not abandon us. The Lord will work within the limitations of our faith and understanding.

And I witnessed God’s providence in what happened minutes after they rolled me out of surgery after replacing my knee.

I had a heart attack.

It didn’t come out of nowhere. I remember in the week leading up to my surgery telling my wife, that I wasn’t feeling very good. I also felt a heaviness in my chest, but sloughed it off as nerves due to the upcoming surgery and heartburn.

It ended up being a small to moderate attack, and immediately, the knee replacement surgery was put on the back burner and all the attention was focussed on what was happening to my heart.

Knee replacement surgery is one of the most painful surgeries you will ever go through and instead of bed rest, I was thrown into a battery of additional tests.

The pain was unbearable, and I prayed several times for the strength to just endure the pain. But I had remarkable hospital staff from the surgeons down to the nursing, who pushed me through.

In the end, they discovered some serious blockages in my heart. They put in three emergency stints, with additional and more complicated work to be done after I have recovered from my knee surgery.

And I was returned to the ward to recover from my knee surgery.

Now I had been sitting on this heart time bomb for months, and though this knee surgery undoubtedly sparked the heart attack, I saw God’s providence in it all.

As I was on the recovery ward with other who had just had their knees replaced. One had been waiting four years for his surgery. No one who I talked to was less than three years.

I believe God had somehow snuck me in just over one year and four months.

You see I could be sitting here writing an article, on a different subject of course. I would not be in pain as I would not have had my knee surgery, it is still months off.

But, I would be thinking everything was completely fine with my health. But it wasn’t.

A fuse had been lit in my heart and with spring on the horizon and yard work, a heart attack was pending and the circumstances and severity could be completely different.

So I thank God who cares for me despite my unbelief.