There are some things you don’t truly understand until life puts you in a position where you have to live the message you once preached.

Many years ago, I ministered a message at a childhood friends Women’s event called “Can You Carry Someone Else When They Stand to Benefit and Not You?”

At the time, I preached about the men who carried their paralyzed friend to Jesus.

Mark 2 tells us that when they arrived at the house where Jesus was, they couldn’t get through the door because of the crowd. But they didn’t turn around. They didn’t tell their friend, “We tried.” They didn’t decide it was too much work.

They carried him to the roof.

They opened the roof.

And they lowered their friend down to Jesus.

Those men were willing to do the heavy lifting even though, from their perspective, the miracle wasn’t for them.

But today, I understand that story differently.

Because I have watched my family carry me while I have been trying to carry my child. Which led to them carrying us both.

From the moment this happened, I never had to ask.

There was no meeting to decide who was going to help. No long conversation about what everybody could or couldn’t do. No waiting for me to reach the point of exhaustion and finally cry out for help.

The response was immediate.

They showed up and they still are showing up.

They carried what I couldn’t carry. They handled what I couldn’t handle. They stepped into spaces that needed filling. They helped hold my family together while my heart was sitting beside my daughter fighting for her life.

And suddenly that old message became my life.

Can you carry someone else when they stand to benefit and not you?

My family answered that question without ever saying a word.

YES.

But here is what God has shown me through all of this:

Those men thought they were carrying their friend to Jesus so he could receive a miracle.

But Scripture says something that has stayed with me:

“When Jesus saw their faith…” — Mark 2:5

Their faith mattered too.

The man may have been the one lying on the mat, but everybody carrying a corner of that mat had an encounter with Jesus that day.

They carried one man to Jesus, but they all witnessed His power.

They carried one man to Jesus, but they all left knowing something about Jesus they could never unknow again.

They carried one man to Jesus, but their faith was strengthened in the process.

And that is what I see happening in my family.

Yes, we are carrying Bug.

Yes, we are praying for Bug.

Yes, we are believing God for Bug’s continued healing and restoration.

But God is doing something in all of us.

Every person who has carried a corner of this mat is witnessing God.

Every person who has prayed, driven, sat, given, sacrificed, watched the children, handled responsibilities, checked on me, encouraged me, stood beside me, or simply refused to let me carry this alone is part of this testimony.

I thought I was watching my family help me carry Bug.

Now I realize Jesus has been ministering to the carriers too.

Because sometimes the miracle isn’t only what happens to the person on the mat.

Sometimes the miracle is what happens inside the people who refuse to put the mat down.

Family, I see you.

I see every sacrifice.

I see every quiet act of love.

I see the things you did before I could even ask.

And I thank God for every hand that grabbed a corner of this mat.

I once preached, “Can you carry someone else when they stand to benefit and not you?”

Years later, God allowed me to see the answer with my own eyes.

Yes, you can.

And what you may not realize while you’re carrying them is that when you carry somebody to Jesus, you never leave His presence unchanged either.

We are carrying Bug.

But Jesus is carrying all of us.

And when this testimony is told, it won’t just be the story of what God did for Bug.

It will also be the story of what God did in a family that decided:

We will each grab a corner.
We will carry her together.
And we will get her to Jesus.