Since going to baby Micah Wessman's funeral a couple weeks ago, I have wanted to blog about it. God really impacted my life through Micah's life and death and the truths the pastor shared during the service.
When we were seated in the church pew, we began watching the pictures of 9 month old Micah scroll across the big screen at the front of the church. The grief I felt watching those pictures, knowing that God took his little life so soon, felt unbearable. Keep in mind I was a total outsider to this little boy's life and I barely knew his parents. How much more unbearable for his parents, I thought.
The service was at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis, were Cory and Heather Wessman go to church. The pastor (Kenny Stokes) did a phenomenal job of leading the service. He retold the story of what happened to Micah and interjected so much of God's truth throughout. As the funeral went on, I found my grief becoming bearable and my trust in God's goodness and soverienty growing steadily. This may sound weird, but it felt like the pastor had planted a tree that kept growing taller and stronger as the service progressed.
One of the specific things that impacted me was when the pastor told Heather (who struggled with guilt, wondering what more could she have done to save her baby's life), "This is not about you. This happened so that God's glory could be displayed." Much like in John 9:1-3 (which the pastor also shared) . . .
As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."
This renewed vision of God's sovereignty has really freed me in my new role as a mom. I don't need to work so hard at protecting my son from getting hurt or sick or losing him. And I don't need to worry about him (or worry that I am going to die in a bad storm, like I did when we drove through one last night!). God is going to do with his life - and my life - what He desires, for His glory.
I swear I knew this stuff before, but God used Micah's story to cause the truths of God's soverienty and goodness to go down deeper into my soul. I left the service with a much greater trust and confidence in who God is and how good He is, even though He just allowed a 9 month old baby to die.
You can actually listen to the pastors message at the funeral on Reed & Rachael Wessman's
blog. I highly recommend it! You can also read more of Micah's story here.
5 comments:
thanks for sharing those truths jen!
Jen, isn't true that we so often trust God with everything..but we often don't trust Him enough with our children. Thank you for the blog. Lots of love.
this is the exact verse andy's aunt shared with me after simeon died. helped me 1000 times over and still does!
Thanks for sharing, Jen. After your first post about Micah I had wondered what had happened. Corey was in our small group for several years back when we went to Cornerstone (and we had lost touch after all the moves). What a tragedy, but what a witness that is coming from them. Thanks for posting the links to the blog. I can't access the link to the sermon though for some reason. It keeps heading me to some google reader. If you can, can you write out the link here in the comments or email me the link? stephanieochsner@hotmail.com
Thanks again for posting.
Stephanie
Jen - I am so glad to hear more after we were cut short at the garage sale last week! What a great message for me to hear, an all-time worry wart, which has gotten worse since Gage was born. You're right, these are not new truths, just more deeply embedded and real now. May God continue to use the precious life and story of Micah for His goodness!
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