Worldview / View of the World

By Ron

(Reports on Kari and Matthew included)

I am not the kind of person who changes their core beliefs much or very quickly. My worldview today isn’t much different today than it was forty years ago. Inspiration of Scripture, explanations for evil and suffering in the world, the nature of man and his value to God – this kind of thing.

That said, my view of the world can change quite a bit from one season of my life to another, even from one day to the next. I’m talking here about how I can see things due to my emotional state. A present example…

For the last three months (except for the last week), Kari had not been doing well. It’s all about her arch nemesis – those intractable seizures. We were very concerned. Perhaps things were winding down. Degenerative diseases do that (get worse) by nature, don’t they? Perhaps this was the beginning of that final descent from which she would not recover. We felt we were losing her. She was, frankly, experiencing a lot of misery. We in turn were as well. None of the old tricks / adjustments to her care helped. Things kept getting worse. And this colored just about everything in my world.

But then, a week ago Kari had a sudden turnaround – a response to the last of the items in our bag of tricks. And it worked far better than we would have dared to hope. Within a few days we had our Kari returned to us! She continues to do amazingly well!

“When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.” That’s how I feel – this is an “almost too good to be true” experience.

Our workload hasn’t changed much in type or volume, and yet it is suddenly lighter and more manageable. And we dare to hope again. Maybe I’m still being a bit cautious, not quite as “light as a feather, happy as an angel, merry as a school-boy, giddy as a drunken man” (to quote Scrooge) but feeling pretty good!

Sunday night, Matthew and I slept out in the tent camper. At 4:10 I was awakened with, “I hear the birds singing!” Yes, it’s like that. I’ve awakened to hear the birds singing again.

Somehow, for three months we persevered until the dawn of this day. And yes, no doubt our larger worldview is what helps get us through such times.

So, that’s the “fantastic news” (the exclamation from the neurologist about Kari) that I share with you. Now for the report from a different medical doctor: “Best vision I’ve ever seen from Matthew” (ophthalmologist at Hershey Med). In addition to seeing things very clearly, Matthew is overcoming “convergence insufficiency,” which means he now brings his eyes together well enough to be able to see 3D (depth perception). We believe this is one of those continuing benefits of the hemispherotomy surgery back in April of 2021. He still has no right field vision and never will, but he is on a path to getting the most out of what he has. Amazed by that as well!

But wait, there’s more. We’re going to be grandparents again. Elia is going to have a sister in October. “What a wonderful world.”