Back to WOW Archives

Date: December 23, 2009

Books & DVDs Kingdom Chums by SQuire Rushnell Read Our Letter To Parents When God Winks on New Beginnings by SQuire Rushnell Sale Price: $15.98 When God Winks by SQuire Rushnell Sale Price: $16.00 When God Winks on Love by SQuire Rushnell Sale Price: $14.98 When God Winks at You by SQuire Rushnell Sale Price: $17.99

But, What If My Request Is Really Impossible?

What if you were told that your husband was going to die within three years unless he received a heart transplant? And when an inner voice told you that God was answering your prayer you pushed Him for a sign—to make it snow on Christmas day in your Mexican border community where no snowfall had been recorded in over one hundred years?

Would you say, that's impossible?

Let me tell you Toni and David's story.

The White Christmas Godwinks

McAllen, Texas is a ten-hour drive from Dallas, five and a half from Houston, and sitting on the border with Mexico. In the middle of winter "cold" is 70 degrees.

Toni Espinoza, mother of two, and her husband David, both in their mid to late forties, owned a modest home on a quiet street of McAllen grateful that their lives were abundant in joy and values. Their marriage was 30 years strong and two daughters, Trisha and Lisa, were now out of the nest and on their way.

Then the devastating news hit them like a ton of bricks.

In the Spring of 2004, three successive cardiologists in McAllen told David that congestive heart failure had enlarged and damaged his heart to such an extent that it was working at only 10% capacity.

"A heart transplant is your only option," chorused the doctors. Soon Toni and David were driving to Houston for further evaluations at the famed DeBakey Heart Institute. There, it was confirmed that David's ejection fraction, which should be the normal range of 60, was only15-20%.

Was it hopeless?

Both held to strands of hope, believing that, somehow, they would pull through. Praying several times daily, Toni cried out to God to save her husband. But she was terribly conflicted. In order for David to live, through a heart transplant, someone else had to die.

"That doesn't seem right," she said to the Almighty.

So, she began to ask God not for a transplant, but for a miraculous healing. By early December both Toni and David were feeling a strange peace about it.

"I felt we were in God's hands," said David.

"I believed that God had already begun working to completely heal my husband," said Toni.

Yet, she wanted assurance more tangible that God's miracle was already on the way. She spoke with God about it.

"Lord, I will know David's okay, if you make it snow on Christmas Day, in McAllen, Texas," she stated firmly.

She mentioned it to David. But, when he didn't respond—one of those times that husbands don't really listen—she decided to drop the matter with him. Instead, she told three others about her pact with God: Crawford Higgins, a close family friend, her sister Sylvia and her friend Marilyn.

"Snow in McAllen? That's impossible," said her sister.

Crawford was more blunt. "Toni, if you're expecting it to snow here, where we've lived all our lives, and never seen snow—and specifically on Christmas Day? You might as well start making the burial arrangements."

Toni nodded. And smiled.

Christmas Eve arrived.

At 11:30pm Toni looked out to the backyard and blinked. Snow flurries were falling.

"Tricia!" she shouted to her daughter, home for the holidays from New York City. "That's snow, isn't it?"

"Yes!"

Can any of us imagine the joy that ran through Toni?

They embraced.

"Your Dad's going to be okay," whispered Toni, choking back tears. "Quick, go get your Dad and Lisa."

David, struggling with a cold, and knowing that he had an early alarm clock to do his Santa chores, had gone to bed early.

Toni pulled open the sliding door to the backyard and stepped onto the lawn, now speckled with snow. Coatless, alone with God, she lifted her face to the heavens, closed her eyes and said, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you."

White flecks of snow dotted her hair and stuck to her smiling face.

The next morning, Christmas Day, the bundled-up children of McAllen burst from their homes to manufacture first-ever snowmen and fanned angels on their front lawns. And, for the first time in recorded history, McAllen, Texas received a white Christmas and the city's first measurable snow in 109 years.

Three weeks later Toni and David drove back to Houston for three days of tests at DeBakey Institute. On the third morning Dr. Guillermo Torre, entered the small office holding David's chart.

He studied it checking and rechecking the name on top.

His eyes began to widen. His jaw dropped. He looked up at the two of them.

"I can't explain this," he said with surprise in his voice, "You're not sick anymore!"

He again looked at the chart. Again looked up.

"David, you're going to be around for a long time."

For anyone who doubts if Toni's prayers were answered with remarkable godwinks, the medical records from DeBakey Heart Institute tell the story. On David's initial visit, April 27, 2004, doctors wrote: "LV function is severely depressed with LVEF 15 to 20%." However, three weeks after the White Christmas miracle in McAllen, on January 24, 2005, his report states: "Lower limits normal LV function. Qualitative EF is 50%," well within the lower range of normal.

Godwinks are the tangible evidence that prayers are answered if we follow the promise to each of us in the ancient scriptures. We are specifically counseled: "Seek God with all your heart. And you will find Him. "

That's what Toni did.

So can you.

This is an excerpt from SQuire Rushnell's next book:

GPS: God's Positioning System™
How Godwinks & Divine Alignment Guide Your Paths.