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The
LORD gave me a message. He said, "I knew you before I formed you in your
mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my
spokesman to the world." (Jeremiah 1:4-5 NLV). Our
reading this morning comes from the calling of Jeremiah to be a prophet.
He is reluctant to accept God’s call since he is so young. God’s
encouragement to him is also an encouragement to us. The following story was
sent to me recently. I think it will touch you as it did me. A cold March wind
danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the hospital
room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her
hand. That afternoon, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to
undergo an emergency cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu
Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they
knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like
bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it," he said. "There's
only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, her
future could be a very cruel one." Numb with disbelief, David and Diana
listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely
face if she survived. She would never walk; she would never talk; she would
probably be blind; she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions
from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation; and on and on. "No!
No!" was all Diana could say. She and David with their 5 year-old son
Dustin, had dreamed of the day they would become a family of four. Now, in a
matter of hours, that dream was slipping away. "David said
that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements," Diana remembers,
"I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include
me, but I just couldn't listen." I said, "No, that is not going to
happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say. Danae is not going to die!
One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!" Danae
clung to life with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature
body could endure but as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David
and Diana. Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially
"raw," the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort -
so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests. All they
could do was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. As
the weeks went by, she slowly gained weight and strength. When Danae turned two
months old, her parents were able to hold her. Two months later, though doctors
continued to warn that her chances of survival--much less living a normal
life--were next to zero, Danae went home, just as her mother had predicted. Five years later,
Danae is a petite but feisty young girl. She shows no signs of any mental or
physical impairment. But this happy ending is far from the end of her story. One
blistering summer afternoon, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap watching her
brother's baseball team practice. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with
her mother. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell
that?" Detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes,
it smells like rain." Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head,
patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No,
it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His
chest." Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then hopped down to play. Her
daughter's words confirmed what the Blessing family had known all along. During
the first two months of life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to
touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest, and it is His loving scent that
she remembers so well. Can anyone doubt that it was God that formed Danae, that He knew her, and that He sanctified her for a specific purpose. I don't know what all God has in mind for Danae, but part of her purpose in life spoke to me today. I trust it has for you too. |
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