Exasperated with the counter-girl’s oblivion to my need for speed, I took a seat and waited as she flirted with a trucker and dilly-dallied while preparing my salad to go.
Someone standing to my right spoke. “Today is the two-year anniversary of my little girl’s death.”
Astonished, I turned to see a young woman looking down at me with eyes so deeply filled with pain I had to momentarily look away. She continued in a near monotone and said, “She drowned in the pool. Mom forgot to lock the gate.”
What do you do in a moment like that? What do you say when you don’t know what to say? All I could think to do was stand and hug this total stranger. In the awkward moment of silence that followed, I offered the perfunctory, “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
The woman looked over my shoulder and out the window to the parking lot and said, “She was such a beautiful baby. Your salad is ready.”
For years after the miscarriage of my first baby, I harbored the secret fear that my miscarriage was punishment for past misconduct, and wondered if my baby, who was never baptized, was being punished too. Praise God for the truths and comfort of His Word.
All children are precious in God’s sight. He loves the infant. He loves the preborn. And there is nothing that can disqualify mothers or their babies from His divine compassion. There is no sin you can imagine that is greater than God’s love. He is a loving, gracious, compassionate God. When we humbly confess and repent of our sins, He is a God of countless second chances, faithful to forgive and cleanse us.
King David proclaimed after the death of his ill-conceived son with Bathsheba, “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” Through King David’s words I am comforted, knowing that by embracing the forgiving, cleansing, life-transforming power of the crucified Lord, I too will one day “go to” and be reunited with my unborn child for all eternity.
There is healing in Christ. Take hold and heal.
(Photo courtesy of office.microsoft.com.)
(For more devotions, visit us at www.christiandevotions.us.)
For more than two decades Penny Hunt has led, educated, entertained, encouraged, and inspired people of all ages both at home and abroad through her speaking, writing, and programs.The wife of a retired naval officer and attaché, Penny has moved five children (yours, mine, and ours), pets, and all her earthly possessions from the coast of South Carolina to Hawaii, Europe, South America, and back. Find more info on Penny at www.pennylhunt.com.