"But can I pray?" Mom shares how her son Mikey recently experienced his faith in action...
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August 25, 2020On Thursday, Michael was helping my husband with the new fence we put up and taking off the post caps so that they could be secured as our final step. One of the caps fell behind the fence and Mikey took it upon himself to take our hedge shears from the garage to try to trim some of the shrubs behind our fence in order to get to the fence cap. While Michael was running with the shears, he fell onto the shears that caused a deep laceration on his eyebrow. He knew to run and scream to me as I was in the house. I calmed him down and secured his deep wound and got in the car to take him to the ER at Morristown Memorial Hospital.
As I started to drive, I reminded him that he couldn't cry or make any facial expressions with his eyebrows so that the butterfly band-aid would not come off and make his wound re-open. Michael stayed calm and said, "But can I pray?" I told him that he could definitely pray and I heard him mumbling some prayers. I walked him through what would happen at the hospital and the stitches he would get and he asked, "Will I still be handsome?", which of course I answered, "Yes, you will still be handsome." He stayed calm the entire time at the hospital and was so brave even though he is the more emotional one of my two boys.
The next day, I asked him what he prayed for and he said, "I asked God to make sure I was OK and safe, for it not to hurt and to help me get through it; and he listened and answered my prayers because I 'm OK and he made it not serious. I'm OK because God is Good! Trust Jesus!" and he pumped his fist in the air like a train conductor, just as he had learned this July in Vacation Bible School. My mind was blown. I just thought he was going through the motions, but he really has been learning so much about our faith!
Michael is healing well and has some anxiety about what happened, so I do a lot of trauma work with him at night (good thing that both his parents are counselors). He relives the event at night and imagines what would have happened if..... and sees me crying and his brother stunned with no expressions, if something happened.
Last night I told him we could go to church and pray about it. Today, I went by the church but couldn't get in, so I told Michael that during COVID I prayed to the statue in the parking lot, so that is what we did; we knelt down below Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus, and said our individual
prayers. Michael got up and took a deep breath and said, " I feel so much better now. I got it all out, I won't do the what if's tonight." He seemed so much calmer. I reminded him that he can pray anywhere but knew that he needed to come to church to feel that closer connection and quiet space to pray. An hour later, I pulled into Shoprite and who was parked directly in front of my car? Cristina Folan. I had to share my story with her because she knows Michael and I knew she would appreciate how mind blown I am.
Later that night, I told my mom about this and she said, "Good thing you have been teaching the boys about God and Church." I reminded her that she baptized us and brought us up as Roman Catholics. She said, "That's true but you took it even further and continued your faith and even have Giovanni as an altar server and the boys helped shoot the videos for vacation bible school."
The circle of life is amazing and I am so moved at how God works in such
mysterious ways, and how Michael knew -- that in his darkest hour, when you feel helpless, there is hope and that you can always count on God. It's great to see that my boys are getting the message in between their childish ways and seeing the big picture. I prayed to God and thanked him for keeping him safe and for blessing our family. Michael has learned his lesson not to run with sharp objects and that he can always "Trust Jesus!"
Flo Chirichiello