After I believed in God, though I knew we humans were created by God and all things we enjoy are provided by God, I didn’t approach my belief in God as the greatest thing in my life. When it was time for church meetings, if I was busy, I wouldn’t attend meetings for fear that it would hinder me from earning money. It was not until I went through the jaws of death in the spring of 2008 that I had a correct attitude toward believing in God.

One morning, I got up early to cook meals. Yet before I had breakfast, I felt a sudden pain in my stomach. At first, I thought I ate myself sick, so I didn’t care about it. However, after some time, my stomachache got worse. My mother-in-law urged me to go to the hospital immediately. Then my son went out to hire a taxi at once and wanted to carry me to it, but my stomach had ached to the touch. My family could only support and help me get into the taxi, and I sat sideways in the car. I was semiconscious when we were near the hospital. In a daze, I suddenly thought of God, and cried out to Him in my heart, “Oh God! I’m just more than 40 years old. My son hasn’t gotten married yet. I don’t want to die now. God, please save me.” After I arrived at the hospital, the doctor gave me a quick examination and diagnosed my illness as acute ectopic pregnancy. He said, “She needs an operation right now, or she’ll die.” Right after that, he started to draw my blood for a blood test. But he found my blood was flowing into my abdominal cavity, so he couldn’t take any blood at all. Facing this situation, the doctor had no choice but to say, “She has already suffered from anemia, and now acute ectopic pregnancy and it caused her blood to stream into her belly, so we can’t take any blood from any part of her body. Now she needs an immediate blood transfusion to undergo surgery. But we can’t know her blood type, so we can’t transfuse blood into her nor can we perform an operation on her. There’s nothing we can do.” Later, the doctor told my family to be mentally prepared for the fact that I would die, saying, “Take her back. We have done everything we could.” Seeing that the doctors really couldn’t save me, my family wanted to take me home. I thought: It’s over. I have only several hours to live. Even the doctors can’t save me. I can only wait to die. Thinking of this, I was completely hopeless. Lying on the bed, I thought: Though I believe in God, I seldom attended meetings. Only now when death is coming upon me do I realize that money can’t save me at all. So I prayed to God in my heart, “Oh God. I’ve got away from You, and lost Your protection. Even if I die today, I won’t complain about You.”

Then, I heard one of my husband’s friends, who worked in a maternity and childcare hospital say, “Take her to our hospital. Just try it. You can’t let her wait to die at home.” Hearing his words, my family agreed and took me to that hospital. When the doctor began to draw my blood, I was barely breathing. At that very moment of life and death, the doctor took a drop of blood from my carotid artery with difficulty. After knowing my blood type, the doctor started to perform an operation on me. During the operation, the doctor found that the uterine tube ruptured because of the increasing size of the fetus, which caused me to have an acute hemorrhage. There were about 2,000 or 3,000 mg of blood in my belly. Seeing I was seriously ill, the doctor had never expected he could bring me through it, only trying to make every possible effort to save me. He emptied my belly of blood and transfused blood into me as well. Then he could only wait to see whether I could come to. After about 4 or 5 hours, when everyone had given up hope of me waking up, I gradually came around. The doctor and my family were stunned. My husband’s friend said, “You are so lucky to survive the operation. It’s unbelievable that you are alive.” Hearing his words, I suddenly realized it was God who had saved me. Otherwise, how could I continue living? Almost all my blood had streamed into my abdominal cavity, but there was actually one drop left in my carotid artery for a blood-type test. Was this not God’s wondrous deeds? These two years I had believed in God in a muddle-headed and blind way. It was unexpected that when facing this crisis, I would receive so great a salvation of God. I was so lucky!

Lying on the hospital bed, I recalled the whole process: My mother-in-law made me go to the hospital, and my son hired a taxi and sent me to the hospital where the doctor gave me a checkup, and my husband’s friend advised my family to take me to their hospital, and finally the doctor took the last drop of blood from my carotid artery. During this process, if anything had gone wrong and taken more time, I would have died. Only at that time did I feel God had always watched over and protected me by my side. He arranged all kinds of people, matters and things to save me by seizing every minute and second. The reason I could survive was all because God created the miracle of life. I kept thanking God for giving me a second life.

At that moment, God’s words occurred to me, “He does not want to sacrifice a single soul, and He does not wish to lose one single soul more; man, meanwhile, cares not for his own fate. So who loves you most in this world? You do not love yourself, you do not know to cherish or treasure your own life—God has the greatest love for man.” From these words, I experienced that my life is in God’s hands and that God’s sovereignty and arrangements decide everything. Furthermore, I felt God’s love is indescribably deep. In the past, I thought money was more important than life, and that money was everything, so I was always in two minds about my belief in God. After I experienced death, I truly understood: No matter how much money I have, when death arrives, it is absolutely useless to me. When I am at risk, only by praying to God and relying on Him could I receive God’s protection and care. Only God can save me. Only God takes responsibility for my life at every moment and always pays the price for me in silence. When I thought of this, I felt very indebted to God. I determined that I would follow God steadily to repay His salvation.

Through this experience, I completely understood: Only by believing in God, coming before Him, and pursuing life can we live out the most meaningful life. On the contrary, chasing after worldly splendor and riches is vacuous and empty. It is no wonder that Solomon, such a wise and wealthy king said, “I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). This is the true feeling of those who have real experience. All the glory be to God for His salvation and protection over me.

Maybe you also like to read: Rely on God, Life Is Really Easy!