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Prayers for Selah and Steven Curtis Chapman
By Julie | June 17, 2008
Last week my sister sent me the following email:
I was listening to our Christian radio station this morning, and the DJ said that both the brother and sister in the group Selah have lost young children in the last several weeks. They gave the address of the blog below, and I thought you might like to read a bit of it. So sad… http://audreycaroline.blogspot.com/
The blog mentioned above was set up by a woman named Angie, who is married to Todd. Todd is part of the group Selah. The blog was started in January of this year, after Todd and Angie found out she was carrying a baby with a lot of medical problems. Problems that, unless God moved, could not be corrected and the baby would not live in the outside world. This entry goes into more detail, into both the couple’s hearts, and the conditions discovered in their baby at their 20 week ultrasound.
Angie writes with such honesty that as I read I’m suddenly crying at what she felt, at the pain of losing a baby, and the awesomeness of God for giving me the boys Marc and I are raising.
Their baby, Audrey Caroline was born on April 7, almost two months early. But she was alive! She weighed 3lb, 2 oz (seems like a pretty good weight for a baby born so early!) For two and half hours the family held and loved their little girl. Then God took her. For more information, or to see pictures of the baby and family, read “A Letter to my daughter”. Reading may break your heart, but it will remind you of what truly is important, and how much we really do have.
As if this tragedy weren’t enough, On May 27th Nicol, a former member of the group Selah, lost her baby boy, Luke, to SIDS. Nicol was not just another singer; she is also Todd’s sister, and Angie’s sister-in-law. Her baby was a little over two months old, then he was taken. In the blog, Angie mentions the babies being in heaven together. For more information about Luke, here is a link to “Update on the Sponbergs”.
Also, it was less than a month ago, on May 21st that Steven Curtis Chapman lost his little girl, Maria. The families in Selah, and Steven Curtis Chapman’s family could use our prayers.
As I read through these entries and try to understand the heartbreak of losing a child I can’t help but notice the depth of acceptance these parents show. They didn’t want this to happen to their kids. But they accept it, knowing God could change it in a heart beat if he chose to. It hurts, but they accept it. Yet I meet people who have been given so much in their kids and their families, but they don’t like the terms God gave, so they complain or lie about it. This baby didn’t come soon enough. This one came too soon. This family wanted a girl but got a boy. Often their baby was perfectly healthy. They had what the members of Selah lost, a child, healthy. If only they could see God was in charge of the details. I wonder how often I miss Him, and complain.
Please pray, for Selah, for the Chapmans, for every parent who has lost a child. Please pray God will comfort them in their grief, and show them a purpose to their heartache. And pray for those who can’t accept the circumstances of the child they’ve been given. Pray they will know that God does not give children by mistake; the circumstances of their births or sex, or personality or anything else, are not mistakes. And hopefully we can all love our kids a little more when we are sensitized to how quickly they could be taken from us.
Topics: Awesome People, In the News, Life and Living, Pray for |
