February 27, 2019. Nothing new that day...dramatic incident or special church service. Just a boy and his momma laying in bed chatting about the "Sweet Sour Service & Savior" part of our day. We like to do this with the boys at dinner or at bed sometimes to hear what good things happened, what not so good things happened, how they helped someone in their day, and how they saw God in their day.
Luke and I were doing that and then we got talking about how my sister’s dog had recently died. Luke asked me what happens if you don’t go to Heaven. So I explained the Hell and Heaven and the difference. When I said to him once you accept Jesus into your heart and pray and declare with your mouth that He is your Lord and Savior than you’ll be saved forever and ever. Then we started talking about getting baptized and why you get baptized and I explained it to him that it is kind of like a trophy. It’s not the trophy that made you win the game....the trophy is just a way to celebrate what you did! When you accept Jesus into your heart and decide to get baptized we celebrate our inside decision by celebrating on the outside and declaring our love for Jesus being washed in the water. Then we talked some more about baptism in the Bible etc. Luke with the very sweetest real face says "I have Jesus in my heart" and I said I know you do buddy and when you’re ready and want to pray the prayer to accept Him for eternity you will be saved.
And in Luke fashion he says "I’m ready right now" In that moment my whole body got chills. He was ready. So of course I told him we would pray and I would help him by saying somethings first and told him he should mean it from his whole heart and pray it put loud of his mouth. Oh how the video memory in my mind will never ever be able to be replayed in words. He was so sweet and so serious and his little eyes laid gently closed...never opening, never squeezing tightly shut, just a peaceful, purposeful, heartfelt prayer. He smiled big when he was done and I was so excited to run into Lanes room and tell daddy about it after Lukie and I hugged it out. Of course Matt was so happy for him and spent sometime with just Luke after a little bit later.
After the boys were asleep I was telling Matt that for some reason during him praying I had this flash memory of him as a new baby, before his surgery, the way the bow of his lip was, his cheeks, his long face....all of it flashed into my mind what he looked like before his plastic surgery. It was the newborn face of the baby I literally sat up holding in a recliner for 6 weeks every single night barely sleeping a wink worn feelings, wondering, worried, prayerful, post pardum, and so in love with this tiny human who had a BIG hurdle to overcome. It was a moment while he was praying that even though it was a visual flash memory of Luke’s little face as a baby (the pre surgery baby face....) it was a reminder that God is real, He is for us, and that He WILL come through for us)
We are so so so SO incredibly grateful for Luke and his decision to follow the Lord and accept him into his heart all the days of his life forever and ever.
