March 28, 2006

Trae’s miracle

By Shari Gorton

On August 28, 1998, my husband, Richard, and I traveled to Quincy, Calif., from our home in Chico for a triple 25th anniversary get-together at our old church. We left our 5-year-old daughter and 2-year-old son in the care of my stepmother at our home.

We were having dinner outside the church that evening and didn’t hear the phone ringing inside for at least an hour. When the men went into the church and heard the phone, one of them answered a call neither Richard nor I will ever forget.

Our son, Trae, had been hit by a car.

Everyone surrounded us and began to pray. We went into the church and called the hospital. It was 8:15. We found out that Trae had been hit around 6:20. Almost two hours had passed before anyone could get hold of us. The doctor began to describe Trae’s condition.

Trae was having a CAT scan. They were looking for brain damage and internal bleeding. Trae’s head took the brunt of the impact. He was suffering from major head trauma and other injuries to his skin on his back, arms and legs. There wasn’t a lot of tissue left to work with on his head. Most had been scraped off and left on the pavement.

We were at least an hour and a half away. On the way to the hospital, God did something. At first, in our little car, we had never felt more alone in our lives. But Richard had bought a CD from a Christian TV show. It had arrived just that morning in the mail before we left. I had tossed it into the car to listen to it later. Now I popped it into the player just to try to get my mind focused on something other than my dying baby.

The first song to come on was by Twila Paris — “God Is in Control.” I had to release Trae into God’s hands, into the hands that created him. Whether Trae lived or died it would be God’s will, and I knew then that God was holding my baby in His arms. It was like thunder struck me. God had spoken and I needed to obey. As soon as I did God’s peace overwhelmed me like an all-consuming fire.

I still did not know what I would find when we got to the hospital. But I knew I would be held tightly in the Lord’s arms. When we arrived at the hospital, I was still upset, still shaking, still worried. But I was also at peace with whatever the outcome God had in mind.

We were told Trae was in ICU, but that his CAT scan came back normal. He wasn’t out of the woods yet, but we could see him and hold him. We were told before we saw him that his head was about the size of a basketball, and he had more than 500 stitches in his head.

Through all of Trae’s tubes, battered body, swollen head and trauma, he still lifted his head to me and said, “Mama.” He held out his hands for me to hold him and I wept for the gift of life God gave me one more time.

Jesus saw, Jesus knew, and Jesus had a plan even when I doubted.

Richard and Shari Gorton attend Sonrise Christian Center (AG) in Chico, Calif. (Scott Dowel, pastor).