(December 12, 2023) Maureen McQuillan shares her testimony of her ‘special’ Christmas Day miracle gift…

Christmas Day is that special traditional time when we give thanks to our heavenly Father for the priceless gift of His Son Jesus who would become our Saviour.

For Robert and me, it’s also a very special day of thanking God for the gift of our precious daughter, Wendy, as she was born on Christmas Day. Indeed I give thanks to Father God not just at Christmas but many times during the year for Wendy – who when younger always reminded me, ‘Two pressies, Mummy; Christmas and my birthday, not together, but separately.’

I particularly give God thanks when out-of-the-blue I hear on TV news a latest remembrance of the horrible results of a particular dangerous tablet common back in the 60s. Why?

Now I know that I shared this before… but I was again reminded the other week about my miracle baby and felt to retell my experience. Let me share in a personal way…

Naive expectancy!
Firstly, I must confess that Robert and I were ever so young back when we married in ’61! And rather naïve about a lot of things – we had yet to fully discover the wisdom and leading of the Holy Spirit, and the fullness of His caring and power.

The second year of marriage I was expecting our first child and was so sick every morning. I had to travel daily into the city to my workplace and, sadly, no man would kindly offer me a seat on the crowded bus and I had to fight against being sick over someone. I wasn’t a happy very young mum-to-be!

My doctor’s recommendation was ‘Take these popular tablets, Dear. They’re regarded as the answer to morning sickness.’ I’d never heard of them… but innocent, trusting little me accepted his script for this ‘miracle drug.’

And what was that tablet?

Thalidomide!
Later the world, not just me, would learn about the horrible disasters of this drug caused to pregnant mothers-to-be and the children in their wombs. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, more than 10,000 children in 46 countries were born with deformities as a consequence of thalidomide use, according to the FDA.

Here’s where my ‘miracle’ comes in… Miracle? Maybe that’s a wrong term… but what hapened was strange, most unusual, even weird!

The next morning, I casually opened the bottle of those tablets as I stood at the kitchen sink of our old rented ‘make-do-with’ apartment to get a glass of water.

Suddenly it seemed that every pill was jumping up out of the bottle – that’s the only way I can describe what happened before my eyes, I kid you not! I know I didn’t spill them! Every tablet vanished down the old-fashioned large sink hole! If those ‘Christmas shepherds’ were stunned suddenly seeing the angelic visitation, image how I felt! I stood there for a few moments pondering what had happened.

Back then I didn’t know the Holy Spirit as deeply and intimately as I was to discover later… but I felt in my heart that this was God – our loving, caring Father – shielding me from something I didn’t know was dangerous.

I didn’t get a replacement script but decided to continue enduring the morning sickness. I told an astounded Robert and we just prayed for inner peace, wisdom and God’s strength to look after me.

Our Christmas gift!
Come Christmas morning that year, as the first snow stared falling outside, what a Christmas gift we had with the help of our loving God!

Wendy, our beautiful, precious, full of good health daughter, was born perfect in every way. Some doctors commented on her healthiness and asked, ‘What have you been eating, Maureen? She’s so healthy. What hair… and those eyes!’ When I said, ‘Grapefruit’ they simply nodded, commenting, ‘Best thing you could’ve eaten!’ And, typical of babies born on Christmas Day, Wendy and I were on local TV news!

It was much, much later TV news of a different kind revealed the horrors of thalidomide. We thanked our loving God for the ‘miracle’ of Wendy that we’d experienced – not that we’re extra special. We still feel for those poor parents and their children back then – and for them today, indeed for any heartbreaking birth tragedy!

A miracle happened in that manger! My ‘miracle’ happened in a sink!

Trusting the Christmas gift-giver
We continue to marvel at God’s amazing love, precious grace and miracle-working power as He displays His love to all who know and trust Him. As with that old song we too ‘count our blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done.’

That Christmas morn decades ago, Wendy was our very special blessing indeed… and she has always blessed us in so many ways: we’re proud of her and the fact that she has made her mark in life, achieving much and touching many lives with her own insight, shrewd acumen, wisdom and prayers!

Of interest, here’s our 10 year-old Wendy, the 1972 Sunday School Cup Examination Winner, and the two of us ‘several’ years later –

A parent is always a parent – as long as we’re still around! We still count Wendy as a special blessing, still thank God for her and pray for her and her family every day (and naturally for our son, Stuart, too and his family). We trust God to look after them all!

Seriously do you need a miracle of some sort?
May we never cease thanking God for everything… for Jesus the Christmas gift, life itself, full salvation, answered prayer, good friends – and much, much more!

God is the miracle-worker! Despite ongoing troubles in the world, trust is always the key for Christians. One time Jesus who trusted His Father God for his miraculous coming to earth as a babe – and His life here – challenged this followers, ‘Don’t let yourselves be disturbed. Trust in God and trust in me’ (John 14:1CJB).

Paul encouraged: ‘But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust Him to do it – you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked – well, that trusting-Him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift’ (Romans 4:5Mge).

I encourage you to trust the heavenly gift-giver!

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Pr Maureen McQuillan’s links: OnlinerConnect@gmail.com and Facebook. 
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