Christmas Time

Sunday, March 4, 2007

march forth...

did you know that today's date is the only day of the calendar that is a command? march forth, move forward.

four years ago today our son oliver thomas was born. ollie was born at 27 weeks and had what is called non-immune hydrops fetalis. the chance of him surviving were very low but we clung to hope that somehow God would heal his little body. God did...just not in the way we had hoped. our little guy is in heaven and he is healthy.

sometimes we must trust God even when it doesn't make since. when we buried our son we had several options in how we chose to deal with his death. 1- we could go at life alone, relying on our own strength, trying to "do life" apart from God 2- we could blame God for our suffering and heartbreak or 3- we could trust the Lord's promise to ultimately prosper us and not harm us to give us a hope and a future.

we chose to trust Him. "when our circumstances force us to come to God, what we find is mystery- the majestic mystery of God's sovereignty, love and trustworthiness." (cynthia heald, what if God was right after all) even in the moments after ollie was pronounced dead the peace that passes all understanding was there. there was the deepest sadness and the greatest peace that resided in my heart at the exact same time. only God can do that.

today, ollie would have been four. wow, God has done a lot of work in me since that day. i praise Him for the way He has been at work in my life. He is a refining fire! i am so thankful that we got to be Oliver's mom and dad...what an honor and what a blessing.

our son's short life touched many people then and my prayer is that it will continue to do so. his grave marker says, "to God be the glory".

may today, ollie's birthday, bring you fame, oh God as we march forth!

3 comments:

Aust Family said...

Thank you so much for this post. It reminds me of my wonderful William Stanton (9/7/05), who is somewhere playing with Ollie in the wonder of Heaven, I am sure. We are so blessed to have known these little guys and to know that they are with us always. Thank you, thank you!

Sarah B. said...

Thanks for reminding us of Ollie. We have thought of him frequently over the years and all of the lessons that he taught us in his life here on earth. It's good to be reminded to give God the glory and how much we must rely on Him, in the big things and the little ones.
-sarah

The Dortenzos said...

Hi! You don't know my but somehow God led me to your blog! I lost our first child, Cicely Grace, on March 13 2003 to Hydrops at 28 weeks! It has affected my every day in so many ways and I continue to learn and love because of her small life! Thank you for sharing your story!!! Katy

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