We don’t always see God’s plan unfold immediately in Romans 8:28. Whether it is being conformed to the image of Christ in Romans 8:29 or God bringing about blessings we would not have experienced before, it can seem as if we may never see Romans 8:28 fulfilled this side of heaven. However, God always fulfills His promises! That fulfillment may look different than we thought it would.
Bekah, our daughter with Down syndrome, went through a very difficult time when she was in public school. There was a disagreement between us as parents and the school about her future education. We were in legal proceedings three times. In the midst of it all, Ellen, my wife, and I were asking Jesus to speak to us about all of this. He did so through people, very specific Scriptures, and once through a dream that Ellen experienced.
In this dream, Ellen saw a lot of kids outside the door of a school. She could see their faces, although she did not know them. They were knocking on the door desperately attempting to traverse that entrance to get inside. When she shared it with me, we both believed that God was telling us that Bekah’s future would look like we wanted it to look. It also seemed to mean that many other children would follow after her with similar hopes. In the end, the school prevailed in all three legal proceedings. We were devastated for Bekah and assumed that dream had been “dreamed up” by the situation, not God. But that’s not the end of the story.
In the last blog, I shared what I had written in my book, “God’s Best-Kept Secret”, about Bekah’s serious health decline in college. She was still very sick at that time and several have asked me since then what happened to her.
The great news is that Bekah’s health was restored back to 98% of the person she used to be. It took more than a year and she still receives a semi-annual infusion to keep her autoimmune disease from killing her brain. Today, she is very happy every day for which we thank Jesus.
I not only wanted to update you on her condition but as you will see, the dream during the legal process and Bekah’s recovery from this illness is where Romans 8:28 is displayed in a way we could not have foreseen. Here is how.
Ellen is a part of a few Facebook groups that deal exclusively with autoimmune encephalitis, Bekah’s disease. One is for parents of children with Down syndrome; the other is for those the disease attacks, disabled and nondisabled. As a result, Jesus has worked through Ellen and Bekah’s experience to share some wisdom with those who are desperate for help as they watch their child wither away. Some of them have fully recovered as a result.
Could it have been that the kids outside those doors in the dream were actually these kids? Is it possible that Romans 8:28 is being fulfilled in a different way? I think the answer to both of those is a resounding “Yes”! This is a testimony from God to encourage all of us to believe in Romans 8:28 even if we cannot see it at that time.
