#45 I Gave God My 2-Year-Old Son - Kathleen Lansing
After Kathleen Lansing’s 2-year-old son fell suddenly ill and was on death's door, she cried out to God asking for healing. But his condition only worsened and Kathleen feared the worst. Only a miracle from God could save her son.
The following is a summary of the podcast interview above with Kathleen Lansing. Many more details are included in the original podcast episode and we encourage you to listen.
Written by Jace Bower
More than a “Good Girl”
Kathleen Lansing grew up surrounded by Christianity in the Bible Belt and worked hard to be a “good girl”. Her heart became rebellious as she entered young adulthood, but she maintained her “good girl” exterior.
While attending college at the University of Southern Mississippi, Kathleen met George. He asked questions that challenged Kathleen and probed deeper than her external mask. The night they met, George asked to pray for her. She agreed. His prayer that night surprised her. No one had ever prayed to God for her in this way before.
Despite making a confession of faith years earlier, that was the night that Kathleen considers her moment of salvation as the veil was taken away and she embraced her faith sincerely.
Her friendship with George continued to grow and they eventually began to date. Shortly after Kathleen finished her nursing degree, they got married. Their first son, Ben, was born in 1983.
A Warning
Ben’s arrival brought a whole new joy to Kathleen’s life. She experienced a deep love for Ben that was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Ben was a gift that God had given to George and Kathleen and they both rejoiced in the blessing.
Life was busy for the young family, living just outside Richmond, Virginia. When Ben was 2-years-old they began sending him to a daycare center. But within two weeks of Ben starting attendance at the daycare, Kathleen received a phone call from the center. They told her that a young girl who also attended the daycare center had come down with bacterial meningitis.
This disease is incredibly dangerous and infectious. Bacterial infection in the spinal cord can travel up to the brain and cause brain damage and even death.
The daycare worker was warning all the parents to watch their children, due to their exposure to the sick girl. Kathleen prayed for the girl but wasn’t concerned about Ben since he had only spent a couple of hours in the center with the girl.
Emergency
Not long after receiving the phone call about the sick girl from the daycare, Kathleen received another request. This time, from the leader of a Bible study that she and George were part of.
The leader asked Kathleen to watch their infant for one night while they and their spouse were away for their anniversary. George was out of town, freeing up space in their tiny home, so Kathleen agreed. She put the baby to bed in Ben’s crib and put Ben, now two years old, to bed with her.
It was a perfect evening for Kathleen, Ben, and the baby. They had a great time playing and the sleeping arrangements worked out perfectly.
But at 2:00 AM, Kathleen was awakened by Ben. He was rasping and struggling to breathe. Kathleen was a pediatric nurse and knew that Ben’s breathing sounded like croup, a fairly common ailment among young children. Children with croup need to breathe warm, humidified air so Kathleen took Ben to the washing machine. She turned on the water to the highest heat so that the steam would rise. She leaned Ben over so he could breathe in the steam, but his breathing did not improve and instead began to rapidly worsen.
From Bad to Worse
Kathleen rushed Ben to the hospital where he was placed in a private room in the ICU. Due to the highly contagious nature of his infection, Ben’s parents could not be with their son except for a couple of fifteen minute increments each day.
As Ben’s 2-year-old throat continued to constrict, the doctors hooked him up to a respirator, pushing oxygen into his lungs. In order to do this, the doctors had to paralyze him and gave him doses of morphine and valium.
Kathleen had seen other children in similar circumstances and understood the direness of the situation.
Even though Ben wasn’t supposed to be aware of his surroundings, whenever Kathleen or George entered the room on their visits, Ben’s heart monitor would show rapid increase in his heart rate. And while the nurses assured her that Ben was in a semi-comatose state and couldn’t understand what was happening or why his father and mother were absent, Kathleen knew otherwise.
Crying Out to God
Despite all the efforts of the medical staff, Ben’s condition worsened.
Kathleen never left the hospital during those days. She barely slept and couldn’t eat. She prayed to God and remembered the truth she had learned from the Bible study that she and George were part of. The focus of the study was spiritual warfare and the study had stressed the truth that God is always in control and that He is all-powerful and good.
Kathleen worked hard to remind herself of God’s goodness and power during those long days and nights in the hospital. She prayed desperately for Ben but didn’t always feel God’s presence. But even in the moments when she didn’t feel like God was near, she knew that He still was. She continued to pray faithfully, despite the lack of feeling.
Kathleen believed that our feelings and emotions don’t define who God is. God does. God is the one who says who He is. And either we believe Him and what he has written in the Bible about Himself, or we don't.
Giving Ben to God
The Lansings were distraught. The news from Ben’s room was not good. Six days after bringing Ben to the hospital, a nurse explained to Kathleen that Ben’s x-rays were worse despite Ben being on his third round of antibiotics. She suggested that Kathleen and George go outside and take a walk to get out of the hospital and clear their minds.
They agreed and Kathleen walked out of the hospital for the first time since bringing Ben in. They walked out onto Broad Street in Richmond and passed by an elegant department store called Miller & Rhoads. In front of this grand store, Kathleen and George prayed and cried out to God. They didn’t care who was watching. They were desperate for God to intervene in their situation.
At last, George held Kathleen and reminded her that Ben was God’s gift to them. He was not their own but was God’s. George and Kathleen had to surrender their son to God.
Kathleen finally knelt onto the pavement, in front of all the shoppers on the street, and physically cupped her hands together and raised her hands to the sky, figuratively offering her son to God. In that moment, as she surrendered Ben to God, Kathleen felt the veil between her and God being torn away. She finally understood God’s control in her life and her son’s.
In the midst of such deep sorrow, Kathleen felt a deeper joy as she faithfully obeyed and surrendered her son’s life to God.
The Final Minutes
When they returned to the hospital, they were met with worse news. Ben’s condition had worsened. One of his lungs had completely collapsed and the other was in worsening shape. The nurse advised them to return home for the night and promised to call them back to the hospital if they were needed for anything.
George and Kathleen returned home to sleep. They got a phone call from the hospital at 4:30 AM. The doctor said the x-ray taken at 4:00 AM had been the worst yet and that the Lansings should come back to the hospital immediately.
They rushed back to the hospital and were allowed into Ben’s room despite being outside of visiting hours. These were the final moments for Kathleen and George to say goodbye to their dear son.
Immediately, the couple put their hands on Ben’s chest and began to pray desperately for healing.
Ben began to convulse and his young chest began to jerk.
Nurses and doctors rushed into the room and hurriedly pushed George and Kathleen out. They pulled the window blinds closed and the Lansings were left out in the hall while their son was dying.
A Wondrous Miracle
George and Kathleen waited outside the locked door and prayed and what felt like an eternity passed.
Eventually, nurses began to trickle out of the room, avoiding eye contact with Ben’s parents.
Through a gap in the window blinds Kathleen and George peered inside the room and saw 2 doctors standing over Ben, their stethoscopes on his chest, with smiles on their faces.
At first, Kathleen was shocked at the coldness of the doctors. How could a doctor be smiling over the body of a dead child? But then the physicians started laughing and Kathleen realized that something amazing had happened.
One of the doctors came out to report on Ben’s condition. He explained that just moments earlier, when Ben’s latest x-ray had been read, his condition had been the worst it had ever been. One of his lungs had completely collapsed and the other had only one lobe that wasn’t completely deflated. Ben was laying on death’s door, intubated on a ventilator.
He couldn’t explain it, the doctor admitted, but now there was no trace of lung infiltrate or congestion, and Ben was breathing on his own.
The physician could find no explanation, besides maybe a miracle?
A new x-ray was taken and revealed that both of Ben’s lungs were completely expanded and there was no pneumonia present.
God, Powerful & Good
Kathleen was praising God. She was overwhelmed with excitement and gratitude toward God.
But deep down, she knew that even if Ben had not been healed, that God was still in control and was walking with her each step of the journey. God the Father had experienced the loss of His only Son and could understand the pain that she was in. He was compassionate in a way that no one else could be.
While Ben’s recovery was still a process, it was one that the family walked through with trust in God. They had seen Him express His power in a miraculous way and they continued to trust in His power and goodness in their life.
Ben’s story didn’t end there. He is thirty-eight years old now, happily married, and working as a professional cartoonist. His life is a miracle that points to the incredible power and love of our Heavenly Father.
No matter what happens, God is in control and is working through the events of our lives. Kathleen surrendered her son to God and God chose to glorify Himself through the workings of a miracle.
—
Jace Bower is a writer with a passion for justice and biblical principles. He writes at jacebower.com.
Personal Note from Kathleen
“As for scripture that was meaningful to me while in the hospital, I remember meditating on scripture about fear the most. So 1 Peter 5: 7 was definitely one of those I pondered over.
“Cast all of your anxiety upon Him, for He cares for you.”
But the story of Abraham and Isaac from Genesis 22 is one we fully connected with in a profound way as our story unfolded during Ben's hospitalization. Abraham's total faith in the Lord, and that He had his good in mind, no matter what the consequences, built our own faith in the Lord.
Once we realized that Ben's illness was out of our power to control, and there was nothing more the doctors and nurses could do to help him, we spiritually lay our treasured child before the Throne of God and gave him back to God.
In a new way, we finally understood that Ben had been only entrusted to us by our Heavenly Father. We knew without a shadow of a doubt that Ben's potential death would have changed our lives forever, but to us, we absolutely knew with all of our hearts that the Lord's plan was for our good and for His glory.
What we soon found out was that His Healing Hand on Ben also changed our lives forever in a most glorious way, and from that miracle of healing, George and I determined to parent as a reflection of our gratefulness for His plan of good for us and for His glory.” - Kathleen Lansing
Links and Cartoon Samples from Ben Lansing
"Out of Order" is an award-winning cartoon series published in Virginia newspapers since 1999. More information. Sample below.
In 2015, Ben began writing for the classic comic strip “Shoe" which is published in 500 newspapers around the world. See more samples. Sample below.
In 2007 Ben was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for the below editorial cartoon drawn after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. More information here.
A new project from Ben is his “Our Church Speaks” series, illustrating different heroes of the Christian faith. Follow along on Instagram or Facebook. Sample images below.
Photos from Kathleen and George
