Not as It Should Be

Elizabeth continues to teach me so many things. On Monday, we went to the doctor for her 2-month check-up. As it turns out, this is the time when they induce your baby to swallow a live virus and then introduce your baby to shots with a needle that seems far too long!

I don't think I will ever forget Elizabeth's cry this past Monday morning. It was unlike any cry she had during her first two months. The "hey I'm sleepy" cry and the "hey I'm hungry cry" were actually pretty subdued, pretty calm . . . not this cry. This was a cry of sheer pain and terror and confusion. In that moment, I think I experienced the most vivid illustration of the deleterious effects of sin that I've ever witnessed. For two months, Elizabeth had been jolly and full of life, but, on Monday, she learned that this world is not as it should be. In this world, there is pain . . . there is terror . . . there is confusion.

Why must my precious daughter have a virus pumped into her mouth and piercing needles driven into her thighs?

They do this because of sin. Yes, that's right . . . sin. Had Adam and Eve forsook sin long enough to have a baby in the Garden, we would read nothing about a regimen of shots for their baby. We would read nothing about sickness. There would be no sickness at all.

But sin, you see, is far more devastating than we first imagine. It's venom surprises us and reaches farther than we acknowledge. It doesn't just twist up our souls; it twists up creation. We are fallen until Christ redeems us, and creation is too - for creation is anxiously awaiting the day of Christ's return when it will be "set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom 8:21).

Until that day, believers continue to live in the midst of a corrupted creation - a creation which still declares the glory of God but also poses innumerable dangers.

Elizabeth took a live virus into herself and then took the piercing needles in her thighs to kill its power over her. Jesus took our sins upon Himself and then took the piercing spikes to kill its power over those who trust in Him. One day, Jesus will return to cast sin and death into the everlasting Lake of Fire and gather together only those who have trusted in Him. At that moment, sin and death will have no power over the children of God, and the creation will again be free of the corruption of sin. The world is not as it should be, but it will be when our conquering King and Savior returns.

There will be no shots in heaven, only shouts of "Worthy is the Lamb!" as we forever consider the grace He extended to us in His nail-scarred hands.

Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus. Amen.

Jesus' Birth

Did you receive the e-mail asking you to petition Kohls because they were not saying "Merry Christmas" in their advertisements or in their stores? What about "Pet Smart?" I appreciate the need to engage in some social and cultural battles, but this "fight" has spiraled out of control. It now owns us.

The fight has consumed us as believers . . . we actually think we've won a battle for the Kingdom of God if we get a store to greet us with "Merry Christmas." Meanwhile, we ignore that "Christmas" has little to do with Jesus anymore. Instead, it means Santa Claus, reindeer, lights, silly blow-up decorations, competing with the Joneses, too many presents, a little extra time with family, and a few traditions tossed in - perhaps a courtesy visit to church before partying all night long the bring in the New Year the following week.

The time has come for us to say what we mean and mean what we say (James 5:12). We should not particularly care if someone greets us with "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays," but we should care to the core of our soul about where they will spend their eternity. How many people will we miss an opportunity to share the gospel with because we are more interested in lecturing them on why they should say Merry Christmas?! An entire industry has developed around the "Merry Christmas" controversy. You can buy magnets for your car, bumper stickers, T-shirts, buttons, and lots of other junk. Just what Christmas is all about - another item to buy! I wonder how many Christians own a piece of "Merry Christmas" merchandise but have never owned a gospel tract?

What would happen if we were moved to compassion for souls as Jesus was, regardless of how people greet us? What if instead of pretending that our "Merry Christmas" buttons are going to save someone, we took the time to explain why the birth of a baby boy in Bethlehem has radically changed our lives? What if instead of forwarding e-mails about the latest store that isn't saying Merry Christmas we took the time to write one e-mail to a friend or family member we know who needs to repent of their sins, place their faith in Jesus as Savior, and follow Him as Lord?

(By the way, Christmas comes from the Roman Catholic "Christ Mass" where Christ is believed to be sacrificed for sins and His grace literally communicated to the participants through the elements of the Lord's Supper. This is what millions of Americans mean when they say "Merry Christmas." There's nothing merry about that - for Jesus made sacrifice sins "once for all" (Hebrews 9:12; 10:10) and He will never again have to give up His life to save us.) Perhaps we could just call Christmas, "Jesus' Birthday" or "Incarnation Day" or "The Day the Word Dwelt Among Us."

It is time to break with tradition when it comes to doing Christmas. It is time for parents and grandparents to stop lying to their kids about Santa. It is time to stop buying into the argument that Christmas is about buying. Christmas is about WHO HAS BEEN GIVEN and the GREAT PRICE that HE PAID to RESCUE US FROM SIN. Christmas is all about the greatest purchase and the greatest gift ever made in all history! It is about a God who loved us enough to be born as a boy and to experience all the frailties of human life and to go all the way to the cross without sinning (Hebrews 4:15). It is about the gift of eternal life which is only available by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord.

So, about Pet Smart. If you were seriously planning to get your pet a Christmas gift, do yourself a favor and donate that money to this year's Lottie Moon Christmas Offering which supports over 5,100 SBC missionaries around the globe. Then go delete all those silly e-mails crowding your inbox and then take the time to share the gospel with someone in a meaningful way. Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Navigating the Unknown

Of all that we are tempted to fear, the unknown ranks rather highly on almost any one's list. Even the exceptionally wealthy tend to worry - they worry whether someone they trust with their money might undermine them, or whether a mistake made somewhere along the way will bring everything crashing down.

Ultimately, money cannot provide the cure for worry. Indeed, nothing that man can produce, generate, or manipulate can solve the sin of worry.

In recent days, I've found myself wondering what the future will hold for Elizabeth. Will she be a missionary in a country where there is little or no religious freedom? Will she be a scholar who makes a persuasive case for Christianity among non-Christian academicians? Will she be a lawyer who stands on the front lines of protecting Christians who are seeing their First-Amendment rights eroded at a disturbing and quickening pace? Will she be a wife to a devoted, Christian husband one day? Will she be a mother? What will her life be like?

At times, my curiosity regarding the future can leak into worry. For all the positive things that Elizabeth might do, there are equally threatening roads on which she might journey . . . .

What is a father to do?!? The culture seems more depraved than ever; people of the church are tolerating more and more paganism in their daily lives; and no one seems very excited about the gospel. Is it all hopeless? Why shouldn't I worry?!

The reason I should not worry is because God has given us a two-fold plan for marching boldly into the unknown: 1) obedience and 2) faith.

It's that simple. God places the primary responsibility of raising up godly children on the family. In Deuteronomy 6:4-8, we read, "Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." My former pastor at Providence, David Horner, put it this way, "the church cannot produce what the family neglects." In other words, you cannot expect a few hours at church every week to compensate for dozens of hours of spiritual neglect inside your home.

So, if I want to raise a godly daughter, I must first obey Him. I must be sure this is a house where Jesus is glorified and His Word is read. To date, Elizabeth has been through Colossians, Philippians, 1 Samuel 1-3, and Mark 1-4.

Secondly, I must trust God. This trust is expressed in two ways. First, I trust that God will not lead me astray with His commands; that when I obey - He is taking me down the right path one step at a time. He is the "light unto my path," but He does not always show me the whole path. Second, I simply have a quiet confidence in the Lord. I can look back and see how he has proven Himself faithful over and over again, and I know that He will fulfill His Word.

So, how do I raise this precious blessing from God? I'm going to take responsibility for training up Elizabeth in the Word, and I'm going to believe God with the intent that He receive all the glory from my parenting and from Elizabeth's life. God, may you be glorified in this house.

Gazing on the Father

In Psalm 27:4, King David declared, "I have asked one thing from the LORD; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the LORD and seeking [Him] in His temple (HCSB).

He says just a few verses later, "Lord, I will seek Your face" (v. 8b, HCSB).

The rest of this Psalm tells us that God is the Provider of salvation and Protector in the face of various trials for those who place their trust in Him.

So, what do God's salvation and His protection have to do with gazing upon His beauty and seeking His face? Can't we just be very clinical about our salvation, declare that it is, and move on? Why all this gushy gazing on the Father stuff?

Enter Elizabeth.

One of the earliest joys of fatherhood has been sitting with Elizabeth on my lap as she gazes up at my face and inspects it with a look of interest, amazement, respect, awe, and wonder all wrapped up into one package. She sits for rather extended periods of time and looks at me in such a way that I know she is deriving great satisfaction from simply looking at me.

One day, as Elizabeth sat looking at me in silent wonder, the Holy Spirit reminded me of Psalm 27 and gave me this thought, "when's the last time you gazed on your Father like that? When's the last time you looked on His face just because you wanted to know Him more, just because you wanted to know what He was thinking, and to somehow be able to tell Him how much you loved Him even in your helpless state? . . . When?"

Though she cannot articulate why she looks upon me with such an amazingly curious face, I'd like to suggest that my face has become a constant for her in a world that seems to change everyday - a sign of security, a sign of provision . . . of protection. When she's with her father (yes, her mother too!), she is kept warm, she is changed, she is put to sleep, she is fed, and etc. She may not remember yesterday's sleeping and feeding schedule, but she remembers her daddy, and when daddy is there - it's all going to be okay.

So, when is the last time you looked upon the Father like your life depended upon Him? Like you love Him? When is the last time you sat in quiet awe of the fact that the Holy God of the Universe smiles back on His children when they gaze upon Him? My heart swells with pride when Elizabeth gazes into My eyes, and the Father surely delights in His children who seek His face.

For those who are followers of Christ, we have constant access to the Father through our eternal mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 10:19 - 20). No matter what life may bring, we can always gaze upon our Father . . . we can open His Holy Word and seek His face. There is no salvation and there is no protection worth having found anywhere else.

Lest anyone think I am suggesting that I will be as good a father to Elizabeth as the LORD, consider a comparison that David makes in verse 10. He writes, "Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD cares for me."

Elizabeth has her greatest earthly fan in her father and mother, but we look forward to the day that she truly gazes upon the Heavenly Father for the first of an infininte number of times as she calls upon His Son to save her for eternity and to deliver her from trouble.

In both the joys and trials of life, may we be quick to gaze upon the Father.

THE ABC SONG

From almost the time that Elizabeth was no bigger than the period at the end of this sentence, I've been singing the ABC's to Elizabeth as well as "Jesus Loves Me." While in utero, I always closed out the ABC song with something like this, "in XX more weeks you'll be here with Daa-dee."

Once Elizabeth arrived, I changed it up a bit and went with, "some day soon you'll be singing with Daa-dee." Well, yesterday, November 26 was "some day soon." Of course, she wasn't saying the letters, but she was clearly singing along with me, and it was such a hoot!

I just hope that she's taking some of this in and that we're as much fun for her as she is for us. Enjoy Elizabeth's first audition; she's more in tune than her dad.

The Birth Story

Here's a copy of what I sent out to our birth class. It pretty much preserves how the labor went and how I now feel about the epidural. Nicht gut.

Stacie went into labor on Sunday, October 14 at 5:00 p.m. She was woken up out of a nap with sharp pain in her lower back. The pain remained in her lower back throughout . . . total back labor. At around 1:30 a.m., we called the doctor to ask if contractions lasting almost 4 minutes but still about 15 minutes apart were worth coming to the hospital for. The doc said "no" just as we suspected, but the contractions were very strong.

Stacie was already 9 days late on Sunday, and she had an appointment at her doctor's office for a general check at 11:15 a.m. on Monday. Stacie called the doctor at around 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning in great pain. The contractions were still 10-12 minutes apart but were lasting 3-5 minutes. The pain she was experiencing was convincing me that Stacie is not someone who conforms to the 4-1-1 rule. The doctor "worked her in" early, around 9 a.m., and discovered she was 4cm and still smiling (during the 10-12 min between contractions). The doctor seemed a bit baffled and immediately sent us to REX.

We arrived at REX and were in the delivery room around 11:00 a.m. (Yes, it's Monday now, 10/15). By the time Stacie was examined at REX, she was 6 cm, contractions now about 8-10 min apart.

We reviewed the pros and cons of an epidural at the hospital, the doctor said it would alleviate pain and was as likely to speed labor as it was to slow it. I raised the questions about slowing labor, losing control, greater risk of tearing or C-section, etc. The doctor was quite dismissive of my questions. Stacie's pain was getting pretty intense, she made it to 7cm well before 12:30 p.m. w/o the help of drugs.

We decided on the epidural (dad still had reservations; Stacie really was doing quite well, breathing well, controlled). The doctor said that at the rate Stacie was progressing that we'd be holding Elizabeth no later than 4 p.m.

Labor stalled.

Pertossin was added to get labor going. Nothing.

Eventually, the epidural somehow worked its way out of Stacie's back. All of a sudden, Stacie is having VERY HARD and FAST contractions because they are being augmented with Petossin, and she has NO EPIDURAL in. Great Googly Moogly.

Suddenly, Stacie is battling labor WORSE than it would have been and with no drugs. Crazy! This ultimately proved to be a mixed blessing. If this had not happened, Stacie would have stayed stalled at around 7 cm. Instead, she went from 7 cm to 8.5 cm in a jiffy. They administered an emergency epidural in the midst of all this, but we basically learned that Stacie can do the hardest labor w/o the epidural. MENTAL NOTE FOR NEXT TIME.

At 9:14 p.m., Elizabeth Hannah Palmer was born. Stacie's doctor, Dr. Jacokes, delivered her; the first doctor, Dr. Moore, had her shift end at 7 p.m. Every risk that I asked about, with the exception of a C-Section, came to fruition. The epidural 1) dramatically slowed labor, 2) precipated a loss of control for Stacie resulting in some less than wonderful results, and 3) ALMOST led to a C-Section.

The doctor had to use an extractor because Stacie couldn't feel her contractions and she wasn't able to push Elizabeth's head around the pubic bone. The extractor left some pretty horrific marks on Elizabeth's head (it popped off once!), but those marks are all but gone now. The doctor said she wouldn't use the extractor for more than 6 contractions before considering "other options" (this was clearly code for "C-Section").

On the final push (third) of the 6th contraction, with dad praying and mom pushing like crazy, Elizabeth Hannah Palmer was born. There was a special unit in the room because of the extractor, and this proved to be very important because it took a long while for Elizabeth to breathe on her own. It was quite tense for about 7 minutes. By the two-day check up, she was back to her birth weight, and everything looks great. . . and mom is finally getting a little rest. Shwew!

Elizabeth Hannah Palmer

Well, hello friends. We are excited that you decided to stop by and see our little bundle of joy. I'm not sure where this little blog might head in the future. Perhaps, I can post a sermon or two . . . or maybe some grand theological treatise. Yeah right!

For now, we'll start with the most amazing thing to ever come out of the Palmer household: Elizabeth Hannah Palmer. Grammie has been doing a great job of helping us get some much needed sleep. And, the video of Elizabeth snoring is just priceless. Enjoy.

P.S. If you want to see all the photos, check out http://www.kodakgallery.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=87505333612.84018552812.1193449114265&page=1&sort_order=0&navfolderid=0&folderid=0&ownerid=0.

We'll add new collections frequently.