There are many moments in our lives when we may feel lost or simply disillusioned with the way our life has been going. However, every once in a while, you encounter someone who reminds you what your purpose is and whom you serve, an encounter that leaves a profound impact and yourself on the edge of tears.
But sometimes, those type of encounters begin with laughter.
“Hey buddy!” I shout at six-year-old Lucas Jaeger as I give his small hand a hard high-five — too hard as I embarrassingly realize.
“Ow!!” he yells at me in mock pain even as I can see that he is laughing. “That was kinda hard. And it kinda hurt!”
As I quickly try to rectify my poor first impression, I come up with a neat solution.
“Alright, tell you what. How about you give me your hardest high-five? I want you to really let me have it, so that way we’re even. Sound good to you?”
Now Jaeger and I mutually hitting each other isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I first came to see him, but judging by the grin on his face, he certainly doesn’t seem to care.
“Okay!” he shouts. And then he proceeds to give his best Mike Tyson impression on my right hand. I laugh as I feel it sting just a little bit, but I certainly don’t mind. After all, I deserve it.
As soon as he hits my hand, he runs off to go play with the balloons and several balls that are scattered about the room. He bounces from one activity to the next almost like a happy puppy.
“He really seems to have limitless energy,” I say to his aunt Chasity Baker as she leads me to where his parents are sitting in the back of the room. “He reminds me of myself when I was his age.”
She grins at me. “Oh, he really does. He really is a little miracle considering everything that he has gone through.”
Everything that he has gone through. Before I had even come down to the Penick Academic Complex to see him, I knew that Jaeger had dealt with some type of medical trauma earlier in his life. It was why the Make-A-Wish Foundation had partnered with the Union University Student Athlete Advisory Committee to grant his wish during halftime at a Union University basketball game on Thursday, Feb. 28. As part of his wish, he could choose to either go on a Disney cruise or to a Tennessee Titans football game (“not the hardest choice in the world since I can take him to a football game anytime,” his father Anthony Jaeger would later tell me). However, I still didn’t know exactly what condition he had.
“It’s very nice to meet both of you,” I say as I greet both of Jaeger’s parents.
“It’s nice to meet you as well,” his mother Bethany Jaeger replies with a warm smile on her face. “We’re very glad that someone from Union wants to tell Lucas’ story.”
I can easily tell that the warmth with which both of them greet me is not merely situational, but a reflection of who they are as both people and as parents. Both of them, especially Anthony, have the quietly confident demeanor of people who have endured a fiery trial — or in this case, their son’s fiery trial — and now rest in the peace that comes from overcoming it.
“Well I’m really wondering,” I say as I take out my pen. “What exactly is Lucas’ story?”
Before he was even born, Jaeger was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which essentially the left side of the heart doesn’t fully form or function correctly. To say the least, it is a severe heart defect that requires intensive treatment.
“We found out when I was 16 weeks pregnant,” Bethany says. “It was very early on in the pregnancy.”
She grimaces as she recalls this dark period. “He had to have open heart surgery when he was just four days old — and we had to put him on life support even before the surgery. And then, he had to have another open heart surgery just four months later.”
“Did that fix the problem?” I ask in amazement. To me, it’s a miracle that this kid is alive, much less running around like he’s Usain Bolt.
She shakes her head. “No, it didn’t. Even in the few years after the second surgery, he was still in a state where he would run around for 30 minutes, and then he would have to take an hour and a half to catch his breath. The doctors said that his heart looked so sick that he should probably be in the hospital most of the time. And a third open heart surgery was pretty much out of the question since the doctors estimated that there was about a 60% chance he wouldn’t even make it off the operating table.” She pauses. “What he really needed was a new heart.”
And a new heart was what Jaeger eventually received. Last year, he received a heart transplant, and he will now no longer have to worry about any more open heart surgeries. A reminder of his transplant is found in the long scar that runs from nearly the bottom of his neck down to his stomach.
“He was the first kid in over 20 years to get a heart while he was still at home,” says Anthony. “He was in the hospital for a week and four days after the transplant.”
He grins for a second. “Actually, he got to hang out with his favorite country singer Brantley Gilbert four days after the transplant. And we were supposed to be in Nashville until July 28 of 2018, but we fortunately got to come home on April 16.”
So, that very well could be the end of Jaeger’s story — and it would certainly be a memorable one. A tear-jerking story about how a young boy triumphed over great adversity that no child his age should ever face. A story about the perseverance of the human spirit.
However, the truth is, as his parents would like for everyone to realize, is that the inspirational story of Lucas Jaeger isn’t really about Lucas himself, but rather it is about something — or better yet, someone — far greater.
“So with everything that you all have been through,” I say as I begin to close my notebook. “What allowed you all to get through this–”
“God did,” says Bethany before I can even finish. “He was always there, and He never left us. Not even once. There were so many moments even when I was pregnant with him that made me realize that God was watching over us.”
Now, as difficult as it is for me to admit, my initial response is skepticism. Of course, I believe that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. However, for someone who has grown tired of wrestling with the problem of evil and suffering, her words feel somewhat hollow to me. After all, even though I do believe that God has a plan and a purpose for everything, I do not know why He would allow a sweet, awesome young boy like Lucas to suffer in the way that he has.
But it is right as that skepticism begins to ignite within me that Anthony says something that leaves me absolutely speechless.
He shakes his head in wonder. “The thing that really gives me chills is that we have had people following his story since birth. And when he had his transplant, 15 people gave their lives to the Lord — and three of them were atheists.”
I put my pen down so that I could place my hands on my head. I am absolutely amazed. I recover enough to be able to grin at Lucas as I see him run by for approximately the tenth time.
“That’s crazy that many people were moved by Lucas’ story,” I say as it is now my turn to shake my head in wonder. “Did any of these people say why they came to know Christ because of him?”
Anthony smiles at me. “They said that if a little boy could actually believe in God as much as he does and actually go through everything that he has gone through and still have a smile on his face after doing it, then they know that God is out there and that He takes care of His own.”
Bethany laughs. “Even Lucas himself will tell you that God helped the doctors with his new heart.”
She stops laughing almost as if she is recalling a painful memory. “There really was a time when we weren’t sure if he was going to make it before his transplant. We thought the third surgery was going to be what was needed, and it was obviously very high-risk. And Lucas came into our bedroom one night and said that we needed to pray to God. He said, ‘Dear God, please be with us so that everything is okay. I love you. Amen.’ Immediately after, Lucas looked at me and said, ‘Mommy, everything is going to be okay.’ I asked him how he knew that.”
She now pulls Lucas over closer to her. “And what did you say?”
Lucas looks and smiles at all of us. “God told me.”
“And what do you know about God?” I ask Lucas as goes back to playing with his balloon.
I notice that he is glancing up at the ceiling, almost as if he is looking for something. “He loves me, and He gave me a new heart.”
As I begin to feel myself overcome with emotion, I am struck by a vivid realization: While I had come into this meeting with the belief that I was merely there to write a story, I now know that God had wanted me to meet Lucas and his family — it was not a coincidence. He wanted me to meet this joyful, wonderful kid and his loving parents to remind myself that while there are things in this world that are difficult to explain — God’s love still conquers all. He is truly a God of miracles, miracles that exemplify His love and remind us that His light always shines brightest in the darkness.
Now Lucas gets to live a normal life as a normal kid who loves Star Wars, the Avengers and the Tennessee Titans. But most importantly, he gets to be a living miracle.
“Now I have one last question,” I say to his parents as we all head to the exit together. “What advice would you give to any family that is going through something like this?”
Anthony smiles at me as he grabs his son’s hand. “I’d tell them that it doesn’t matter what you’re going through. As long as you have faith in God, anything is possible. You can do all things through Christ.”
