There is so much to share right now. Over the past few weeks, I've had time to be still before God, asking Him what He wants for this blog, and how He wants to use HIS story in us to make Him known those who we meet...I started blogging to keep family back home in California updated on our life in Illinois while we were away. Now that we're back "home" I asked God if He wanted me to continue and why. I really sense Him calling us to share our journey ...with Him through life, marriage, parenting, and anything else our days are filled with...but not just so that we have more info floating around the web. The sharing I feel He's calling us to is centered around the truth that all of life, every moment of every day, is a gift from the God of the Bible - the same One who parted the Red Sea, came to Earth as a baby, healed the sick and died in our place is alive and well TODAY in the lives of those who trust Him as Savior. People need to know that. Because of His grace, I am one of those people on Earth right now that lives, breathes, eats and sleeps with the Spirit of the Living God inside of my very being. Every moment I live is divine...not my own, but a gift from the One who designed me for communion with Him. {By the way...no matter your background, family upbringing...He made you for that same purpose too.}
Two days ago, our 4.5 year old Cole celebrated his 3 year Hearing Birthday! For those of you who are new to our journey, Cole was born deaf and through the miraculous technology of Cochlear Implants heard his first sounds at 18 months of age. He's been learning to listen and speak ever since and recently was chosen to have a speaking part in the Christmas Performance at his mainstream pre-school! Isn't God GOOD! In honor of this amazing milestone in his life, I wanted to repost his "Activation Video"...the day and moment, our boy heard his first earthly sounds...
As Cole grows and his speech and language develop, it's easier to take for granted, the gift God has given our family through the devices he wears. Our boy was brought from living in a world of silence to joining, interacting and loving being a part of the world of sound. We've learned so much about God's character through Cole's journey...Cole and every other child born with a disability, is a masterpiece created in the hands of a perfect God. If Cole and other kids like him were knit together perfectly, then the world has much to learn about what the true definition of perfection actually is. Maybe that's why Jesus spent so much time with sinners and the socially ostracized...He knew we needed a lesson on the value system of Heaven.
Lord, we fall to our knees AGAIN in praise for what you did that day for our boy, the work you've done in his life over the past 3 years - helping his brain make sense of the sounds around him, and the plans you have for him in the future to bring you GLORY! What a gift is is to see your hand move in such a beautiful way, right inside the body of our own son. If it's your will, please continue the inspiring journey he's on...as long as your hand is moving, our mouths will be shouting from the highest mountain tops and even the lowest valleys...OUR GOD IS GOOD and WORTHY to be PRAISED!!! What a good God we serve...
In the closing moments of this post, I sense there is someone reading who needs to know that God still heals. It may not be in the way we think we want Him to, though. I haven't keep real close account over the course of my life, but I'm pretty sure that every time God and I have had different ideas about the BEST outcome for a certain situation, when I've asked for HIS will to be done instead of mine, His idea blows mine out of the water. It doesn't even come close to the best thing my wildest imagination could dream up. Trust Him today. I promise you, (because HE promises!)...His healing is perfect, every time. His healing could look like a device like using cochlear implants to hear...but then we get to tell every passerby who asks what these "things" are about the miraculous work of God in our boy's life...Or it could look like freedom from a disease by taking the One afflicted to the place we were all made for, at the feet of Jesus in Heaven...Or it could actually look like we think healing should look like. Regardless of what God chooses to do, He does it right - every time. If we believe that, there is freedom on the other side of that belief...because then we get to join the angels in praising Him for the Sovereign God that He is, and maybe...just maybe...bring HIM glory in the process. What an honor...to do what we were MADE for! Oh Lord, make that true of me!!!
Our oldest boy has some exciting news to share too...check back tomorrow for another fun "first" from the one Cole wrestles with everyday, even if it means loosing a device or two in the process...
