MERRY MONDAY- Parris Bailey
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)
This past Wednesday it almost seemed as if the heavens opened and for 24 hours I felt I went “into worlds beyond”. One of our staff members was threatening to miscarry for weeks and by Wednesday, little Nola was born at 22 weeks. She fought for 3 hours and went to be with her Heavenly Father. Frank and I were able to see her at the hospital and that visit changed my life. She lay there perfectly formed and beautiful, I don’t know why I wouldn’t have thought otherwise. Ps. 139 instantly flew into my mind, that we are indeed “fearfully and wonderfully made”. She fought so hard and we all felt in that “3 HOURS”, SHE CHANGED ALL OF US, WE WERE SPELLBOUND. Later I met the Marysong girls and spent the day cultivating the vegetable garden for winter. As I was tilling the soil working with the girls, my mind seemed to wander back and forth to baby NOLA and these girls. Somehow these two were related but just couldn’t wrap my head around it. After we finished the garden I felt “led” to go walk the back 9 acres of the property with the girls. It has probably been 25 years since I had done this. In the middle of the woods, I saw a huge oak tree and find myself saying to the Msong girls, “this is where I want to build the msong house”. That evening, as I was telling Frank about the back property and oak tree, my cell rang and Debra (the director of msong) asked me if I wanted a house because someone was donating one! You can imagine my elation on hearing the news. The next morning I was still thinking about NOLA and her short life when I came across a google search about another baby who was born to Christian parents at 22 weeks and lived 3 hours (Her name was Celeste which means Heavenly). I came across this quote about Celeste: “She was loved completely, totally, and fully for the entire 22 weeks and 3 hours of her life. Although her time was short, Celeste was a game changer in this world. Her short survival showed her humanity at a stage where many want to ignore it exists. She showed us that whether you live three minutes, three hours, three years, or 103 years, each person deserves to be loved and shown dignity at every stage of their life whether born or unborn.” Those words impacted me. Later that day, I got a call from the person that was donating the house to us and asked me to go by the address to check it out. The house was on Celeste St! I am not sure what all this means, other than redemption is at work everyday and every way. God comes down and paints our sky——have you looked up lately?
“HE PAINTS THE SKY FOR ME TO SEE”