Birth and Death

Two of my friends had babies arrive yesterday.  Neither are people I am particularly close to at this point, but we all worked together at camp back in the day.  These types of changes are things I am still able to keep up with, courtesy of Facebook.  The real-time nature of Facebook has an interesting impact on how involved one can feel, even remotely, as events are unfolding and the outcome is still unknown.

One of these infants was having issues from the moment it was born, and many people from all over were praying for her recovery.  Unfortunately, she passed away this morning, after 28 hours.  Both birth and death bring perspective to life, (and even more so in cases like this) in our search for meaning, both for the lives in question, and our own.

Her parent's response is nothing short of admirable, (at least as measured by her father's updates on his wife's profile) publicly attributing Glory to God throughout the ordeal, regardless of the outcome.  This extended to naming the baby Gloria, and channeling the attention that they were receiving due to the situation all towards God.  These two quotes stand out to me the most:

"Our great God and Heavenly Father has given His infinitely Holy, righteously just, and perfectly loving answer to all our prayers. Just before six this morning he called Gloria to himself as she quietly breathed her last in the loving arms of her mom as I looked on through tears along with her grandparents and aunts. His answer this time was simply: No.”

"We have never been more convinced of the goodness and love of our God for us, nor has our love for him waned in the least. As we watched our little girl die we were overwhelmed with the reality that the same God who gave Gloria to us is the same God who called her to himself and is the same God who loved us enough to send his one and only son to die on the cross for our sin so that he might redeem us and call us to himself through Christ. Indeed He deserves all the Glory."

May God give me the strength to respond with that level of grace if I am ever to face a setback of that magnitude.  Even just observing the process from my fairly removed perspective has been tough, I can't imagine being in their position.  It does make many of my prayer requests seem fairly trivial by comparison.  But it is times such as this, when trust in God is both extremely beneficial, and greatly tested.  Theirs is a trust that clearly has passed the test, and while I have no doubt they have a struggle ahead, in sorting through the issue over the next few months, they seem to have started off in the right direction.  Trials will always cause us to draw closer to God, or push him farther away, that choice of reactions is up to us.