The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
With great sorrow we learned on December 30th that our ninth baby, a beautiful tiny son, has gone to his eternal home. I was just over 15 weeks pregnant with him. He was due to be born in June. I hadn’t even announced his life here on the blog yet. I wish I had. We were all so excited to have been given him.
In our sadness we are comforted in hope by God’s love and great faithfulness and looking forward to the Resurrection to come.
We named him Ebenezer, which means Stone of Help. The name I had chosen for him years ago.
I spent time that night reading from 1 Samuel chapters 4-7 and found such comfort in God’s great mercy and faithfulness to His unfaithful sinful children.
“And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
Our third son’s name is a confession of God’s Help, Faithfulness and great Mercy. I hope to continue to pray as Job did “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” May God keep me and Phil in His loving care and sooth our grief.
We will have a private burial for our baby on Saturday, January 7th.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the year of the Lord‘s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.” Isaiah 61
