Pastor John Van Sloten

On Sunday I baptized a little girl who was born at 27 weeks.  During the first few months of her life things were touch and go.  Will she make it?  60-80% survival rate.  Will her lungs be okay? Her eyes and ears?  Her heart?  To date  she’s made it through amazingly well.  Thank God for that.   Her mom, on the other hand is still recovering.  Alongside everything it meant to be a pre-mee mom, she was also saddled with the job of saving a small family owned company (hers).   What stress.   You wish you could do something to help.

Enter Edward and I for a pre-baptism meeting at their house last week.  (I brought Eddy because this new mom used to take him out every Wednesday night to go to the library or park or shopping.)   So there we are visiting and I hear the long version of the stress story they’ve been living for the past 6 months…  I could see the lingering strain in the mom’s eyes, and near the end of our visit I asked if I could say a prayer for them.

Then, just as I’m about to pray, Edward cuts in; , “Me first?”  It was an odd request from a kid who has stubbornly refused to pray at our family meals for years.  I told him, “Sure.”   And he did, in a very quiet whisper, that all of us had to lean in to hear.  “It’s his regular bedtime prayer,” I realized, “That long list of family, friends, dead bird pets, and teachers that he prays for every night.”   After Edward said Amen, I took over and finished the prayer.   After that the mom turned to me and said, “I heard him say Amber (her daughter’s name)”   He did.  He’s been praying for the whole family for months. 

For a few seconds we all just sat there; reeling from the shock of Edward even daring to do this.  And then when I recognize how important it was to this mom to have her Down syndrome friend pray for her baby…  I was floored.  It was so beautiful.   I was in tears.  

I am more convinced now than ever that God leans in close to hear the prayers of the disabled.