Unexpected Motivation: Little Lydia

Just now I read the new blog post of some friends from church, whom I don't know very well but would like to kind-of-thing, regarding their newborn baby Lydia. After two months of scary incidents with Lydia, such as seizures and liver, brain and kidney problems, they finally learned that she has been diagnosed with an incurable genetic disorder called Zellweger Syndrome. Prognosis: 2-18 months. Despite the tears that stung my eyes, I managed to slowly read the rest of the post. Jen, the mom, described their feelings and numbness as right alongside their confidence in the Lord for Lydia's well-being and healing. They're trusting God's plan for Lydia's life, as well as their own. I was impressed to the point of being nearly incredulous to read Jen's wise words, despite her personal numbness right now:

We know you have been praying so faithfully and I really didn’t want to have to give you bad news. We wanted God to heal her - we wanted all those prayers to be answered. And He can still do that. We have faith that He can. But we are also accepting whatever it is He has ordained. Since the moment we found out I was pregnant, over and over we committed her into His hands, knowing that she never really belonged to us. For her to be in His hands is the safest place she can be and that is where we will continue to leave her.

So true. So faithful.

God still is good, wise and merciful, no matter how our hearts ache. Still, it's time for God's family to wrap their arms around Micah and Jen and Lydia, help them walk their path and keep lifting up Lydia. Her precious little life isn't in vain. She'll bless her parents and the rest of her extended family, as well as her Christian family and what has become her hospital family. And she'll continue to bless those around her just by being, until God takes her from our presence to his.

I feel, perhaps strangely (but I'm willing to accept that), a sense of responsibility to Lydia to run that much harder the path God has laid ahead of me in terms of ministry and calling: to write the book that's in my heart for his women and to help God's women come to maturity in Christ through knowledge, study and understanding of the Word. I feel that responsibility to my own daughter, too, and I need to keep pressing forward.