The Miraculous Healing of Damar Hamlin
Last week, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was released from the hospital. He had collapsed during a January 2nd game against the Cincinnati Bengals after suffering cardiac arrest. Paramedics performed CPR for 10 minutes before his heart began beating again. At that point, he was still unconscious, and people feared the worst. Even if he lived, there was a strong possibility of permanent neurologic impairment. Yet last week, he walked out of a Buffalo hospital in seemingly good health.
Was his healing a miracle? When I think about miracles, I think of how Jesus healed people in the Bible. Basically, He would lay his hands on them, pray for healing, and the person would be instantly healed. That is not what happened here. No one came out of the stands, prayed over Damar, and healed him. Despite this, I would argue that God still performed a miracle with Damar and maybe even a greater miracle than an instant healing.
Think of all the things that had to happen for Damar to walk out of that hospital:
God had to create us with bodies that have the ability to heal.
God had to create us with an intellect and a desire for learning.
God had to create countless people through the ages who were inspired to use their intellect to better understand the human body and get to a point where we could know how to restart a human heart.
God had to start a Church which placed a value on education. This same Church was guided by God to start the university system. It was there that people could train to become medical professionals and conduct research on the science of healing.
In addition, God guided this Church to invent hospitals so that sick people would have a place they could go to receive treatment.
God had to inspire inventors and engineers to use their intellect to create machines that diagnose and heal the body (defibrillators, MRIs, IVs, etc.).
God had to inspire millions of people to work in health professions. Some of these people were the paramedics, doctors, and nurses who saved Damar.
The list is nearly endless. Add to it the fact that Damar’s cardiac arrest occurred in a stadium with all the necessary personnel and equipment. When you look at all the factors that went into this, his healing was a miracle of epic proportions.
I’m a huge fan of miracles. I love to hear stories where God instantly heals someone. I believe these take place. But more often than not, I think God prefers to work His miracles through us. These are miracles too if only we have eyes to see.