It was a normal Monday evening in December. the week before Christmas. I was getting ready for bed, when I had this sense of urgency that someone was in some kind of danger, and had a need for prayer. I had no idea who it was or what it was they faced, but I could not ignore the urgency I felt. So I began to pray and worship the Lord. I remember the song by Chris Tomlin, You Are Faithful, kept rolling through my mind, so I began to sing it as I prayed. I spent about an hour praying that night, and then left it with God as I went on to bed.

The next day, at about 11:00 in the morning, I came back to my desk at work to see a voice mail on my phone from my husband. It only said, calling me by his nickname for me, “If you can hear this, please help me,” and then nothing more. I had no idea where he was, if he was sick, or what was happening. I couldn’t think for a moment, and my coworker told me to call 911. I did that and they said they would send the police to my home, and I should meet them there.

Because we only had one car, and my husband dropped me at work each day, my boss drove me to my home. When we arrived at our street, which is a cul de sac, there was a police cruiser at the top of the street. He asked who we were before letting us pass. When we arrived at my house there was a police detective on my porch along with a uniformed police officer. Across the street, another detective was exiting an unmarked police car, putting on a protective vest. I could not imagine what was happening. Our car was not in the driveway. The detective asked me to open the door so the officer could go in the house and check. My husband was not home, and no one was in the house. I still had no idea where he was or what was happening to him.

As I talked to the detective, he told me there had been another 911 call right around the same time as my husband’s call where a man was walking around a neighborhood with a shotgun making threats. Somehow the two calls had gotten mixed up and they thought that was my call. The detective then made a call and discovered that my husband was at the hospital. My boss drove me there and when we went into the emergency room, I was told he had a heart attack and was at that moment having a heart catherterization done.

Soon the doctor came to tell me my husband had 100% blockage in the left anterior descending artery of his heart, and that he had successfully inserted a stent to open the artery. This heart attack is called the “widowmaker,” because a very small percentage of people survive this type of heart attack. The doctor explained it was a miracle he survived and got to the hospital in time to have the stent inserted.

I found out from my husband after the fact that he had taken our cats to the vet that morning and began to feel very hot and began to sweat profusely. He took them home and let them in the house and decided to drive himself to the hospital. He called me from the car while driving himself to the hospital. He parked the car and walked in to the emergency room. When they have me the bag with the clothing had had been wearing, it was completely soaked through, including his winter coat.

I suddenly realized the he person I had prayed for the night before was my own husband. It was a miracle he survived, as the doctor said, and I knew that God, in His great mercy, had led me to pray that night. I will be forever grateful that I listened and obeyed his urging that December night.

Deuteronomy 7:9

Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;