Our great God is a God of extremes. He can move galaxies around just by waving His fingers. Yet, he knows when something as small as a sparrow falls out of the air. He is the alpha and the omega....and all things in between as well.
We had a chance to experience two of God's extremes last night.
Kimberly Hunt has been pregnant with twins for almost eight months. The news, when they got it, was stunning and awesome at the same time. The pregnancy has not been without its problems. We have all been praying that Kimberly would not go into labor before Oct 12, the earliest date the Doctors felt comfortable taking the babies.
God graciously answered that prayer.
Things have gone well for Kimberly since that date. But yesterday afternoon, she was feeling dizzy and her vision got blurry. She called her precious and wise mother, Donna who encouraged her to call her Doctor immediately. The Doctor sent her to the emergency room "as a precaution". A sonogram raised some concerns. Shortly after that, the Doctors revealed to Gary and Kimberly that they were not detecting a heartbeat nor any other activity for one of the babies. Prayer requests immediately went out. Everyone prayed for healing and a miracle. We had seen it before, when their beautiful and now healthy son, Garrison was born. Garrison was not given much chance to survive. God worked a mighty miracle and today, Garrison is normal, active and vital in spite of the Doctor's grave warnings that he would never be so.
God did not answer our prayers this evening...at least not the way we had hoped He would. the Doctors told this godly and beautiful coouple that one of their babies was no longer alive.
After a mighty time of prayer and tears in the labor room. After I once again saw the Hunts, Jameses and Hostetters give us a schooling on what true faith and trust in God is, Jacob Andrew Hunt was born a healthy, 9 lb, 8 oz baby, kicking and screaming and trying to figure out what this new world was all about. His twin brother, John Paul Hunt, was ushered immediately into the presence of the Lord. We managed to snap some pictures of Gary, the nurse and baby Jacob though the waiting room window:
Jacob moments after he was born and Dad gets to dote over his baby boy
"Joy comes in the morning". It's 12:08 AMI still find it difficult to describe what was happening in that waiting room as they held Jacob up to the window. There were about 20 of us there, each one if us laughing and crying at the same time. God was putting His extremes of life on display right before our eyes. By His unfathomable grace and mercy, He took one home with Him and sent one home with us at the same time. It was an arrow to our hearts but, at the same time we saw the extremes, the alpha and the omega. We were all acutely aware of the blessing God had given us. We were all acutely aware of how fragile a gift life is. And we were all acutely aware that the only hope we have in anything beyond this earth is in our sovereign, wise and loving God who promises us that we will one day worship next to our little brother John Paul in heaven.
We already miss little John. But our grief is only at our temporary separation from John Paul, not our sadness for him. He's in the best possible place. God made him "fearfully and wonderfully'...absolutely perfect for God's absolutely perfect plan for him. God made him to live in heaven, not here on this earth. God made Jacob Andrew to live here with us. Both plans are a blessing. One is easy to understand. The other will take some time.
God is wise, wonderful, loving and holy. We praise God, even in our grief, that John Paul is with Him right now.
Why does He do things this way? Why is He such a God of extremes?....So we can put our faith on display to the world. So they can see the hope that is in us. So they can see, in us, eternity and a promise for tomorrow. Our testimony is not that we as Christians have no problems or obstacles in life. Our testimony is that we have a way to cope with them. Our pain and grief have meaning and our hope has a sure foundation. This family handled a dark hour by lifting it up to God and asking Him to have His way with them, and their baby. You just watch what God does with that kind of commitment.
Isaiah 61
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
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