My friend Matt is back at home, after 80 days in the hospital.

I honestly thought we were going to lose him over the holidays. He checked into the hospital a week before Thanksgiving with a severe case of COVID pneumonia. In the following days and weeks, multiple major organs and systems seemed to be shutting down. We all prayed for God’s miraculous intervention. But things seemed pretty dire. Even when he started to rally a bit in the second half of December and we dared to hope for a recovery, he had a couple of scares that kept us wondering and waiting.

Fortunately, over the month of January, Matt continued to make steady progress. In the first week of February, he was finally able to go home with his family. And today, I got to visit him, along with some other friends. It felt pretty significant to debrief the whole experience with him and his family. And, of course, to celebrate his new lease on life.

He told us he has six holes in his upper body: the site of the tracheotomy in his neck… the feeding tube into his stomach… a port for dialysis on his shoulder… scars where intravenous tubes had been inserted in both of his arms… But the scabs are becoming scars, now. And it really feels like we’re all walking on holy ground, now that he’s coming out on the other side of this ordeal.