Bottles of Sovereign Protection

pills
While sorting through “one more box” in my childhood home, I came across a bottle of prescription drugs in my name and dated from 1985. It was an almost full bottle of Darvon and the prescription read, “One daily as needed for headaches.” I remember the headaches during my senior year of high school, but I don’t remember ever seeing the medicine.

Curiosity led me to a webpage describing this narcotic pain reliever. Emblazoned in red across the article was the warning “DISCONTINUED.” The FDA pulled the drug for causing severe, often fatal heart arrhythmia in thousands. The year before the doctor prescribed Darvon for my headaches, I had spent three days in the hospital with a dangerous case of arrhythmia. I wonder what would have happened if my mother had followed the prescription.

The year before, I had been sentenced to a lifetime prescription to regulate my arrhythmia. Because I believed that God had healed my heart condition, I told my parents I didn’t want that drug. Ten years later, that arrhythmia drug was pulled after claiming thousands of lives.

During grade school a doctor proscribed an anti-seizure medicine with a dosage of three per day. I had never actually suffered a seizure and my mother “had a feeling” about the medicine. She gave me half a tablet and that small dose left me almost comatose. What if she had given me the prescribed dosage?

When I was in the womb, my mother experienced severe morning sickness for which her doctor prescribed a drug later found to contribute to infant deaths and birth defects. My mother suffered through her discomfort without taking the medicine … she had a feeling.

Just a series of fortunate circumstances or God’s divine protection? I believe my birth and death and everything in between are in the hands of my loving and capable God.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Psalm 139:16


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