I came across this prayer that Matt had written last year. As we approach the two year marker of Bailey being in Heaven, I am finding I need to read this on a continual basis. This has been such a gift for my grieving heart.
Faithful Father,
We come to you today with sorrow and gratitude, with joy and with pain. We thank you for the gift of Bailey's life, and we thank you for the gift of her death. Help us to resist the impulse to try to resolve this paradox.
Thank you for answering our desperate cries and for rescuing our beautiful daughter. Thank you that she is free and no longer suffers. Thank you for reminding us even as we grieve the loss of witnessing her first steps, first words, and first day of school, that she has experienced other beautiful firsts. Thank you for the image of her experiencing the first glimpse of your face and entering your perfect embrace.
Thank you for your faithfulness. We now know by experience what we have always believed by faith. You are our hope, our rescuer, our protector, our provider, and our peace. You are enough in all things and at all times. Thank you for your unspeakable sacrifice so that death does not win. Father help us to remember and be comforted by your constancy. Give us peace in knowing that you will give us the "daily bread" of grace and hope that we need for today. Thank you for your promise, that you will bring that same grace, and hope tomorrow.
Thank you for the gift of family and friends who are willing to journey along side us and enter into the pain and messiness of life. Thank you for giving them patience and understanding.
Father we beg that you would keep us from being consumed by the trivial and the temporary and instead would continue to give us glimpses of life as you meant it to be lived. We long that you would use Bailey's life and her story to do beautiful things.
Amen!
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Our story is a story about a MIRACLE. It is not the kind of miracle that is so often shared in Christian circles. We have heard stories about untreatable cancer that disappeared and of a child that was never supposed to walk or talk and is now a healthy adult. These are often the kinds of stories people share with you when you are experiencing difficult circumstances. Stories about the TRAGEDY that was avoided or the near miss that is now in the rear view mirror of life. We value these types of stories and we CELEBRATE them!
Ours was not that kind of story. Our daughter Bailey Hope was born on February 20, 2009. She died on August 13, 2010. The eighteen months in between were horrible and heart wrenching as we experienced our worst fears coming true. We were not rescued FROM heartache and tragedy.
Our miracle was that we were joined IN this journey by friends and family that gave of themselves and by our GOD who held us in unexplainable ways. This is our story. We do not share it to garner pity. There are others who have similar stories. There are so many others who have more tragic stories.
We share our story because it is impossible to talk about our beautiful daughter, without talking about our beautiful God. We must talk about our daughter. We must talk about our God. It is the MIRACLE behind the MIRACLE.
...bailey's story...
Our story is a story about a MIRACLE. It is not the kind of miracle that is so often shared in Christian circles. We have heard stories about untreatable cancer that disappeared and of a child that was never supposed to walk or talk and is now a healthy adult. These are often the kinds of stories people share with you when you are experiencing difficult circumstances. Stories about the TRAGEDY that was avoided or the near miss that is now in the rear view mirror of life. We value these types of stories and we CELEBRATE them!
Ours was not that kind of story. Our daughter Bailey Hope was born on February 20, 2009. She died on August 13, 2010. The eighteen months in between were horrible and heart wrenching as we experienced our worst fears coming true. We were not rescued FROM heartache and tragedy.
Our miracle was that we were joined IN this journey by friends and family that gave of themselves and by our GOD who held us in unexplainable ways. This is our story. We do not share it to garner pity. There are others who have similar stories. There are so many others who have more tragic stories.
We share our story because it is impossible to talk about our beautiful daughter, without talking about our beautiful God. We must talk about our daughter. We must talk about our God. It is the MIRACLE behind the MIRACLE.
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