Lord willing we are just a little over a month away from the arrival of our little girl. In so many ways we feel like we already know her. We know she is quite active. I am always amazed to see how much Lindsey’s stomach shifts and moves. As exciting as this is for me to watch, I know it can make mommy uncomfortable. We know she can be a little stubborn. She needed a lot of coaxing by the ultrasound technician to get the pictures that were needed. We also know that she has long fingers and toes which may mean that we have a basketball star just like mom on the way. Something else we know about our daughter is that she has a heart condition called Atrial Septal Defect (ASD). This simply means that she has a hole between the atriums in her heart which may or may not heal on its own. As I am writing this we are awaiting our final ultrasound to discover what the next steps will be for Eden. As hard as it is to not know what is to come for our little one we are holding to what we do know, not just about her but about our great God.
Long before we discovered any of these things we had decided that our girl’s name would be Eden Faith. Her name literally means “Delight in Faith”. We cannot help but see the Lord’s design in choosing this name for us. We have many questions at this point. The doctors have alluded to different possibilities to what Eden’s condition will mean for both her and Lindsey. Right now we’re not even sure where Lindsey will be sent to deliver Eden but the Lord knows these things and this is why He is calling us to find delight in trusting Him. There is no delight in anxiety. There is no delight in carrying stress or attempting to figure things out that we were never meant to figure out. Delight comes in resting in the One who knows and directs all things for our good and His glory. As much as we feel like we know Eden, the Lord knew her before she was even born. He had each day mapped out for her (Ps. 139:16). He knew each kick her little legs would give and each tick her heart would beat. He also knew that there would be a hole in her heart (Ps. 139:15) but we believe that He is not done with her yet. A verse that we have been holding to in the midst of all of this is found in Ecclesiastes 11:5, “Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.” At this point we don’t know God’s activity. Although we cannot see His work this doesn’t mean that He is inactive. Scripture shows us that He is active so we are trusting in His Word even when we cannot see. Whether Eden’s heart is healed or not we are choosing to delight in trusting God because His ways are higher than ours (Is. 55). What He has in store through this is so much better than anything that we could plan or dream. We know that He will be praised and we are sure that we will come to know Him in ways we hadn’t before.
We have given each of our kids a verse before they were born. Eden’s is Ps. 37:4-5, “Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will do it.” We had been praying that Eden would find delight in trusting in the Lord but now we are praying that for ourselves as well. So often trusting the Lord is a final resort. This is something that we do at the end of our rope or when we have run out of other options. We should not wait until all else has failed to trust God. As Scripture says, “Commit your way to the Lord!” This is what we should choose to do daily, from the start. And as the Scripture ends, “He will do it.” The Lord will carry out His good and perfect will. It is my prayer that our delight would be in just that.
Learning To Delight In Faith With You, Pastor Rudy