The Gift of Faith

Many of you have been praying for Kristina since her heart transplant in 2020. I’m sharing this update to give praise to God and thank you for your prayers.

Thirty five years ago we bought our son Matthew a used desk. It was solid oak and weighed hundreds of pounds. I removed Matt’s bedroom door and corralled two strong friends to help me bring the desk into our house.  The three of us spent half an hour wrecking our backs while hoisting the desk at every possible angle trying to get it into his bedroom. We concluded it was too big to fit. We left the desk wedged in the doorway and headed out because we were late for a meeting.

When I returned home that night, the desk was in the bedroom. Kristina had moved it in by herself. I was flabbergasted, and to this day I don’t know how she discovered the angle and had the strength to maneuver it into the room.

In her fifties, Kristina built a big chicken coop on our side yard. It had taken me and five other men a lot of strain to lift the five hundred pound coop from where she built it to the far side of our backyard. A month later, she wanted me to move the noisy chickens away from our bedrooms. I told her it might be awhile before I could gather enough men to move it.

A few days later, I came home to discover the coop was sitting fifty yards uphill to a shady spot under our pine tree. She had moved it by herself, using round logs and poles. By then I had realized Kristina has a gift for engineering feats and she loves a challenge.

Gary and Marilyn Kinnaman were recently at the Banner University Hospital Heart clinic so Gary could have tests. They asked one of the nurses if she knew Kristina Buckley. The nurse smiled and pulled a tiny cap out of a nearby cart. It was one of the many caps Kristina had knitted for preemie babies at the hospital.

Since her heart transplant, Kristina has backed off most heroic physical feats. She now sews pillow cases for respite residents, quilts for the homeless, and caps for preemies and first responders. She also coordinates a transplant support group. Some of the men swear like sailors on their zoom calls, but it doesn’t faze her.

Kristina and I recently purchased a used dresser and end tables. Our old dresser was too big and bulky for our bedroom, which already has her quilt making machine, an exercise machine, and big bookshelves crowding it.
A strong couple helped me muscle the old dresser into our backyard with a furniture dolly. It sat on our patio like a sulking dinosaur for two weeks. It needed to be moved to our front yard so it could be picked up by the donation truck. I told Kristina I needed at least four men to move it through our backyard to the front.
I came home from my office last week and saw the dresser on the side of our driveway.

“Who came over and moved the dresser?” I asked when I walked into the house.

“I took care of it,” she replied.

“What! All by yourself?”

“Yes. You don’t believe me?”
“I believe you, but how did you do it?”

“I used poles and the dolly.”

I know the building of the pyramids is a mystery, but my wife is often a mystery to me.

She still needs help bringing things she buys in from her car.

She still has constant doctor appointments and health challenges because her immune system is compromised by anti-rejection medications.

She still needs prayer for grace, strength, and encouragement.

However, she has never given up, because she has the resurrection life of Christ inside her. God’s grace is manifest through her in ways that amaze me and make me very thankful.

I have friends who have made their fortunes by investing in real estate that others overlook. I know counselors who untie knots in people’s souls that have been bound up for years. I know pastors who are fruitful because they help broken people find new life in Christ.

These folks all share Kristina’s characteristics. They don’t fear failure. They don’t give up. Where others see trouble, they see potential. What looks to most like a hopeless situation, they see as an opportunity. This kind of faith is a gift from God who makes all things possible.

If you want to enjoy marriage or life, be thankful for what you’ve got, rather than frustrated about what’s not. In time, you too may be surprised by what God reveals and restores.

If you feel stuck between doorways, or have burdens too heavy to lift by yourself, there are people with gifts from God who can help you out. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:3), and Jesus gives these treasures to those who seek Him.