On Sunday, right after our North Campus worship time, I had the pleasure to lead out in a really unique way. A few families here at FBC have begun a ministry called Early Angels for those couples that have endured miscarriages. Though these tragic events are fairly common in today’s society, what is not common is the knowledge about when/if they do happen. This tends to be the case in the church when families and young children typically roam the range with great volume!
Both campuses held an “Infant Loss Remembrance Service” on Sunday. At North we had a simple, but intimate, time with a few of our families that wanted to celebrate the lives of those babies that never lived to see their very own parents’ faces. I was really nervous because Trish and I have never had to endure this severe heart break in our marriage, and I was at a loss as to what to say to couples that have.
Fortunately we have the Bible and its accounts of how Christ endured pain and heartache. Thru my own tears of compassion for my fellow Christ-followers and friends, all I could muster up were the following passages in Psalms and in John. The passage in Psalms is really validated by what Christ does in the account found in John. We can’t answer why these losses occur, but I do know that Christ understands better than anyone. I left them with a statement that I have heard my pastor use over and over in funeral settings… “As much as you loved your baby, Jesus Christ loved them more. So much more, that he felt it best to call them home early.”
The reality is that I am absolutely blessed to be a dad, but I am scared to death to raise LT and his soon-to-be little brother in a world full of strife and ugliness. It would be the hardest thing for me to face, the death of a child, but I do have hope that heaven is a much better place for anyone – including children… born or unborn.
Oh my! So eloquently said…brought me to tears. We are commanded to bear one another’s burdens (as hard as it is sometimes)and this is what happened at your service. God Bless..
I know that God allows us to experience heart break for certain reasons in our lives. You will experience yours and I will experience mine. And I will be able to share someone’s heart ache like mine and you like yours. Isn’t is amazing how God provides just the right heart breaks for us at just the right times? I pray that I will always appreciate the hard times so God can use those experiences as He intends. Why else would He allow us this pain? Boy, is it hard when you’re in the middle of it, though!!
Wow, Joe! It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to log on and read you blog, so I am a little late to the party on this one. In case you were not aware, Jennifer and I had a miscairrage before we had Mady. I am convinced that not only did God call this child home for the benefit of the child, but that He knew that we would be able to minister to others that go through this time of sorrow. In the past three months in fact, we have had two couples that we are very close to go through the same thing.
I believe that God has used our tragedy in the loss of a child for His glory in supporting others in their time of need. God was faithful to us in our time of need. We get the privilege of being faithful to Him in caring and supporting others in their time of need as you guys are doing. I think your service was a great testament of faith that our children are in their glorified bodies in Heaven engaged in eternal worship of the Father.