Making the Switch (2)

The last time I wrote on this subject, the “switch” referred to moving to Minneapolis, beginning seminary, etc. Now the change is much more profound. Caedmon arrived back in August, and the blessings haven’t stopped. I mean so much more than just noticing a smile, singing a song to him, hearing him coo, etc.

You see, this little boy is a miracle. Yes, it is true that they’re all miracles. Our situation heightened awareness of what we otherwise may have been taken for granted. Caedmon was supposedly an impossibility. Too many complications from too many years of sickness for my wife. Caedmon is our “Abraham and Sarah” baby. Now I read Hebrews 11:8-12 with greater understanding and appreciation for the God who gives grace and fulfills promises:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. ⁹ By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. ¹¹ By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. ¹² Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

I can kinda’ crawl around inside Abraham and Sarah’s minds. No, I haven’t been promised innumerable offspring. No, we were never promised a son. There’s no promise as per se that we had from the Word concerning offspring, but we knew that God would “work all things together for our good” (Romans 8:28ff). That’s grace… good coming to us from God, undeserved. All things? Yes, all things. Thinking from the perspective of a man who thought he’d never have a biological son… yes, this is nothing short of pure, unbridled grace. Something we didn’t deserve, and yet here he is. The same is true of everyone, if only they had eyes to see. Lord, give me sharper eyes to see.

Natalie and I are rejoicing in him… and in Him. God is everlastingly good, even if He hadn’t given us a son or if He someday takes ours away. The fact that we have a son for any length of time proves all the more that Yahweh is the God of the womb and the God who lavishes love upon us.

But there’s been even more grace poured out… the kind that humiliates and humbles. More on that soon.