a story of faith.

i heard a story yesterday which hit home for me. i have not experienced anything remotely close to what happened to this young woman, but i can learn from her experience and i think that's why god gives us stories; they are meant to be shared.

sunday morning at church, our congregation sang these words:

no guilt in life, no fear in death
this is the power of christ in me
from life's first cry to final breath
jesus commands my destiny


i'll be honest with you; i sang these words half-heartedly. maybe because i was distracted in thought, maybe because they are almost too familiar. but then some friends and i grabbed lunch and janelle, a labor and delivery nurse, told us that she lost it and started crying during that song, because she had been having a hard time dealing with losses at work and questioning why some people never get their first breath. she told us a story of a woman who went into labor prematurely and the baby was stillborn. the mom gave janelle a blanket she had knitted and asked her to keep it with the child, and said that all of their tears and prayers were in that blanket. the mom held her lifeless child to her chest and kept repeating these powerful words: "everything's a blessing. everything's a blessing."

i am blown away by the faith of this woman i have never met. my struggles are trivial in comparison to what has happened to her, and yet she has more clarity into god's promise for her.

i don't really have any grand conclusion for this post. i just felt i needed to pass this story along. i know there are others out there who need to hear it just as much as i did.