Partakers of His Grace by Emmanuel Ozaha

 

 

Partakers of His Grace by Emmanuel Ozaha (Nuel Writes)

Short Story (Fiction)

"Good afternoon Ma"

"Good afternoon"

"I believe I'm unto Mrs. Shade Olabisi, this is Mrs. Hope calling from Wins Academy."

"Principal, is everything alright? Your voice sounds tensed."

"Ma, you have to calm down.."

"Principal, where is my son? Did anything happen to Imole?"

Shade had hung up and dashed to her car hurriedly. Shade was driving as though she was in a race and anyone who got in her way, posed as a threat to her.

The reception of Hillview hospital was soon banging with the voice of a raging mother who demanded to see her son amidst the plea of everyone who tried to calm her down.

"He fell from a two story building." The principal had said, the explanation that Shade couldn't add up in her mind.

Fourteen year old Imole lay lifeless in the ICU. Shade couldn't fight back tears. Every faith declaration she had held unto wasn't finding it's grip in her lips. She couldn't bring herself to fathom loosing her only child Imole after waiting for twelve years for his arrival.

Pastor Ben, a few church members, friends and family joined Shade in the hospital shortly.

"We'll be leaving for evening service now, be sure that prayers will be made for Imole and I can assure you under God, that this is not the end of him." Pastor Ben said before leaving with the other church members who had accompanied him to the hospital.

Imole had gone into coma after the operation.

Mr. Olabisi arrived Hillview hospital few minutes past 8pm. Canceling all he had to do and taking the next available flight from Abuja to Lagos was a must for him upon hearing the news of his son's accident.

"Babe, my son, my Imole..." Shade broke into tears at the sight of her husband who wrapped her in his arms, comforting her.

Few minutes after, the doctor asked to see them in his office.

"We've been able to sustain the bleeding in his brain but, I'm afraid there's a bit of compression around his brain due to the fall, this can cause the brain to shift, causing damage to the brainstem and the reticular activating system." Doctor Harold said

The doctor had said his chances of survival was 50/50. The word that got Shade loosing her cool as she latched out at the doctor with anger, shouting and cursing. It took her husband pulling her out of Doctor Harold's office to stop her from any further disaster.


………………
Seven days had passed and not a blink of an eye from Imole. Shade had become a shadow of herself, all persuasion to get her to go home has fallen on deaf ears. She'd rather stay by Imole's side, desiring to be the first he sees, when he opens his eyes.

"Shade, this is not you. This is not my Shade o. You look pale, your skin is breaking." Jumoke said.

"Jumoke, let the skin break. Of what use is the fine skin when my baby boy lies lifeless in that bed Jumoke?"

"Shade, Njẹ Ọlọrun ti dẹkun iṣẹ (has God stopped working) remember this phrase you recite audaciously? You know I've always said I'm not one who calls just anybody friend but Shade, knowing you from childhood days, my spirit and yours have always connected. You taught me how to war in prayers, you held me through faith when Tobi was autistic. Today, it would be hard for anybody to believe I gave birth to Tobi as an autistic child. You taught me positive faith declarations.It was from you I learnt how to speak words of faith over my dying business and today, see me traveling to Dubai for the same business that would have died."

"Jumoke, I sit by my boy each day waiting for him to open his eyes and the pain of seeing him in this condition, is draining." Shade said

"Ore mi (my friend), it's time to fight in prayer and faith. I haven't stopped praying for Imole since you called while I was away in Dubai and now that I'm here, I'll hold your hands together in faith, we will see this boy walk out of this hospital alive."

"Amen! It’s funny how I am beginning to get use to hospital smell.." Shade said

"God forbid o, this is not your home and can never be. I believe in no time, you and Imole will be out of this place for good. You weren't in church this past Sunday, pastor Ben preached an amazing message on Sunday, you should have a rewatch on YouTube. Shade, know that I'm standing with you on this.." Jumoke said then reached out to Shade, embracing her and wiping the tears off her eyes with her palm.


………………

Imole was wheeled into an ambulance Wednesday evening at exactly 10:20pm headed for Lagos university teaching hospital. He suddenly began to jerk while in coma. The doctor had only calmed him down a bit but advised they moved him immediately if they wanted him alive.

As Shade sat in the ambulance, holding unto her sons hands, all she could manage to say amidst tears was "Jesus, save Imole."

His condition had worsened. The sight of all the machines connected to Imole just to keep him alive and breathing was heart rendering. The very sight Shade had to deal with every single day. Seeing her only child in this state is one she would never wish for her worst enemy.

Shade sat besides Imole as he lay on the bed. The room door opened softly.

“I bought you food to eat, you haven’t eaten for days now.”

“I am not hungry, I cannot be eating when my son hasn’t eaten nor spoken to me for days now.”Shade said,turning her face away from the plate of food set before her.

“Babe,I cannot afford to loose a child and my wife, I would die if that happens.”Olabisi said

“Ola, my son will not die, God forbid.”

“I didn’t say he would die, I am just being realistic.”

“I see, you have join these doctors to agree Imole would not come out of this.”

“That is not it Shade, let’s be realistic here, the boy has been in coma for over fifteen days now, his brain cells are affected, even if he does come out alive, he may never be the same.”

“Get thee behind me satan.”Shade screamed out at her husband with tears gushing out her eyes uncontrollably.

“You are always stubborn, Imole is my son as much as he is yours and I care about him. Do you think it is easy on me to see him like this and watch you go through this struggle?” Ola said. He walked out of the room shortly after the doctor had come to warn of any noise in the room.

Shade had cried her eyes out after the short argument with her husband. She knew how hurt he was by all of this and how much he cared and loved them both but seeing her son in this state was tearing her apart.

………………

It was a Friday evening, Shade had apologized to her husband and he assured her he wasn’t angry at her.

“I can never be mad at you, I understand the pain of a mother seeing her only child in this state. We will get through this and Imole would back home with us. Remember we have a family vacation planned out for December and there’s no way Imole is going to be absent.” Ola had earlier said.

Ola had gone back home leaving Shade with Imole in the hospital. Shade sat besides her lifeless son and placing his Bible just by his head, she takes a stare at him, a smirk on her face as she struggles between tears and smiling. She recalls the greatest trial of her faith, having to wait for a child for twelve years was one battle she won but it came with blood and sweat. It took every ounce of faith she had built in God and His promises over the years to wait those twelve years. While her husband stood by her those years with encouragements, prayers and love, she had to deal with side talks, family and mockers.

It was at a time where she would describe her world as gloomy and extremely dark, that God smiled on her and blessed them with the most beautiful baby boy she had ever seen. No other name would fit but Imole (light), because this child brought light to her home and life. Imole had grown to live out his name because since his birth, it's evident God's hand was upon him.

Fourteen years after, here she was, faced with an even more greater battle of seeing her son battle between life and death.

She picks her phone and makes for YouTube. She has had to miss church services since Imole has been in the hospital. Scrolling through her church Youtube’s page, she clicks on the message titled “Partakers of His Grace.”
 
"And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. 2 Peter 1:4
How did Paul escape the venomous hurt of a viper that fastened itself on him? Paul simply held unto the promise of God that says, you will tread on serpents and scorpions and none of these will hurt you. Our greatest advantage in this kingdom is a dodged faith in God's promises because in it, we plunge into the divine nature of God. That a man can actually live in this world full of sicknesses and diseases, today it's covid, tomorrow something else yet, he so lives in health why? He's held unto a faith in God's promise as touching his health.
 
There were three boys in the bible, who held unto God's promises so much that the fire couldn't have any effect on them. Staunch faith in God's ability to save them and that was all God needed to show up as the fourth man in the fire. I ask you today, how much of God's promises have you taken a hold of enough to press into the divine nature of God?
God has given us His promises as our ticket of access to His divine nature and until we find these promises and like Abraham, against hope believe in Hope, we would remain cheated, defeated and doomed."
 
Shade was half way into the message and she was sobbing uncontrollably. Like jolts of electric shut into her,every word she listened from Pastor Ben’s message on Partakers of His grace was doing something to her only she and God knew what was going on within her. She could feel every dead cells of her faith coming back to life, if she was going to stand as a praying mother to give life to her dying child, her faith needed some resuscitating and the words she was listening to, was all the CPR her faith needed to jack back to life. She stood up, walked up to Imole with tears falling from her eyes
 
"Imole Daniel Olabisi!" She called out authoritatively "God's word has assured me, that I cannot bury my child. Imole, I call you back to life. It is written where the spirit of the Lord is, right there is freedom, God's spirit resides in you and you cannot be held bound in coma, Imole, come forth." She said those words like her life depended on it with tears and faith altogether.
 
As though she was in a dream, she could tell Imole moved one hand. Whether that was her hallucinating or not, it gave her all the boost and confidence she needed. Her declarations continued and this time, even louder, bolder and stronger. Her eyes fixed on him; his hands moved yet again. Twenty minutes after, Imole had opened his eyes for the first time after 21 days in coma.

In the words of the doctor "This is a miracle beyond science, how this young champ went through this with no damage to his brain whatsoever."
 
Only Shade knew her Imole had been privileged to partake of God's divine nature, escaping the claws of death, even when the verdict for the predicament that plagued him was indeed death.

………………

Imole was discharged from the hospital three days after. The doctors all agreed keeping him any further was a waste of time. He had fully recovered, the recovery everyone agreed it truly was a miracle. No scar, no complications, no defects.

As they packed ready to leave, Shade took a glance around the room, the room where Imole had lay lifeless for almost a month, the same room where her faith had come back to life, the room where her son had been privileged to partake of the divine nature of God.

Mr. Olabisi started the car at the sight of Shade and Imole. They got in, Shade and Imole sitting at the back and off they drove.

"See how comfortable you guys are sitting behind while I drive as though I am your driver." Olabisi teased.

"Babe, you know it's not like that, I just have to sit close to my baby, I miss hearing his voice." Shade has always said Imole has the most attractive deep voice at Fourteen. Not only was his voice unique, he also has a calm and endearing personality, the exact definition of Proverbs 22 vs 6. She always said he would make a fine man for a husband.

"Mum, I miss the taste of Domino's Pizza, can I please get one?"

"Even if you need as many as twenty, consider it done." Shade responded immediately, a smile on her face.

Mr. Olabisi peeked in through the internal rear view mirror at both mother and son catching moments and he couldn't help but smile. The joy that has faded from his face, become effortlessly visible at the sight of both his wife and son.

The End…

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