An Abundant Life

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10

Seven years ago, and for several years after that, I found this verse to be questionable, if not, blatantly untrue. On August 22, 2019, my seven year old granddaughter, Eva, fell off the back of a golf cart and suffered a traumatic brain injury, leaving her with a life whose future looked far from abundant. In fact, it didn’t look even remotely possible. The years following were filled with days and weeks and months of hospital stays. And the days when she was home it was hours upon hours spent holding her, working to keep her body and her crying under control. Every day was managing medications, figuring out what she needed, sometimes calling for an ambulance because nothing was working. It was years of watching my kids, my grandson, Phoenix, and Eva struggle to survive. Abundant life? Not even close. 

But as the years passed, life with Eva became stable. The times that Dugan and Lindsay spent at the hospital taught them how to maintain and bring better life to Eva when they brought her home. To the point where now, and for the last few years, hospitalization has been few and far between. When she does go to the hospital, it’s scheduled for procedures to give her a better life, no longer just trying just to save her life.

Which brings me to this year. Year number seven. A number in scripture that means completeness, wholeness, fulfillment. Dare I say, abundant.

Eva started high school this year. She’s a freshman. And I don’t say, “started high school” as a metaphor. I mean, she started high school. As in attending 3+ hours a day. Going to a variety of classes with an Aid. Plus, due to her best friend’s brilliant idea, Eva joined the high school dance team. AND just this past Saturday she had her first Homecoming. 

She’s no longer just a survivor of a terrible accident. She is a girl who is thriving. A teenager who smiles with bright and eager eyes when she’s at school, at the football game, and when she’s hanging with friends. And she blinks her eyes to give us her opinion and scrunches her nose when she strongly disagrees.

Eva and I pray each time we’re together. We begin our prayer with praise to God, then on to thankfulness, next praying for others, and then finally for her. And each night our prayers are truly filled with overwhelming thankfulness for the life that God has given her. A life surrounded with such joy and meaning. A life that none of us could have imagined seven years ago. The life that Eva is living. A truly abundant life.