Come Lord Jesus!

Dear Caleb and Noah,

It's been a rough couple of days at our house. Caleb has had a nasty virus and Noah has been battling reflux. There have been a lot of tears and a lot of time spent snuggling our two precious boys. As I rocked Caleb one night, his body burning with fever, I sang old hymns I remember from years and years in church. As I rocked Noah in the middle of the night and struggled to keep my eyes open I thought of the popular song, "God loves a lullaby in a mother's tears in the dead of night better than a hallelujah sometimes." My sweet boys, we live in a fallen, broken world. A world full of disease and bodies that don't work right and heartache beyond what I can express. A world so oppressed by sin that we see but a fraction of the glory God created. As I sang those old hymns to Caleb I found myself longing for the day The Lord will return and call us home. No more viruses that make us sick. No more reflux that burns our chest. No more sin warping our view of God's brilliant creation. My heart aches over the world you will grow up in - this world that pulls and tugs and distorts Truth. This world of scary bad guys and quiet lies and a revolution that threatens the definition of family.

Singing those hymns to Caleb Friday night I found my heart begging Christ to return and set us free! To call us Home and free us from the bondage of sin and death. It hurts to see you boys suffer in a broken world and I longed for the freedom of Heaven more than ever before.

But then, in the middle of the night as I rocked Noah, I remembered the verse I'd discussed with your Aunt Megan just hours before. "They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of The Lord for the display of His splendor." (Isaiah 61:3) That verse is my prayer for you - my strong boys. I pray that God would plant you firmly in the soil of Truth - that you would display His splendor!

I hate that you have to grow up in a world that is so opposed to the Truth that defines our lives. I hate that you boys will always have to fight culture tooth and nail in order to stand for what is right. But I know if God doesn't choose to call us all home, then He's going to plant you firmly and call you to stand as tall as a mighty oak! I love you, my precious boys. I love you so deeply my heart can hardly comprehend it. Please know that even in the rough weekends when you're both sick and my head is spinning from trying to clean up the throw up - I'm praying. I'm praying for your hearts to know Truth. I'm praying for your lives to display the splendor of the God who made you. I'm praying that you will be world changers!

I love you both!
Love,
Mommy