Death and life are in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21)
You shall not insult the deaf (Leviticus 19:14)
It is I who created the craftsman who blows on the coals and forges weapons suited to their purpose; I also created the destroyer to work havoc. No weapon made will prevail against you. In court you will refute every accusation. The servants of Adonai inherit all this; the reward for their righteousness is from me, says Adonai. (Isaiah 54: 16-17)
As Ephraim listened to the ebb and flow of air in and out of the boy’s chest, his own breathing relaxed as he mentally sighed, “Yes… yes, he is better.” Yesterday the crackles in the boy’s chest, like the sounds of an ice floe breaking up, bespoke the treacherous state of the child’s illness. Yesterday the choice of antibiotic treatment had been an educated guess. Ephraim’s words of hope and reassurance to the boy’s parents had seemed threadbare. Now Ephraim’s more confident demeanor and the glint in his tired eyes spoke more clearly to the parents’ hopes than his carefully chosen words, “I will be even more reassured when I know the culture results.”
As if on cue, Ephraim’s pager intruded on the moment. Recognizing the laboratory’s number and hoping David was calling with the boy’s sputum culture results, Ephraim excused himself, his cell phone summoning the number that it so often called. “David, what did you find?”
“Just as you thought, it is Serratia marcescens. Curious bug, really. It rarely causes serious infections; its red pigment is mainly a laboratory novelty. By the way, you guessed right on the best antibiotic to use.”
“David, thanks for getting back to me so quickly. This boy was born with a...
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