Sunday, January 25, 2009

Good Book

After you lose a baby, no matter whether you miscarried, lost your baby at birth, or lost them during infancy or childhood, it, basically, totally sucks. I know that's kind of crass wording, but in all we have gone through, I've yet to find something that hits the nail on the head more for me.

After Eli died, we read some books...we received a lot in the mail. I probably need to go back and read them again, because I have no real recollection of them in the haze that was my life at the time. But while I always knew where Eli was: heaven, I don't know if I would have been able to defend myself with scripture if someone had challenged me on that. Luckily, that never happened, and I've never wavered on that point...Eli is in heaven, happy and healthy and whole.


So when a reader (Thanks so much, Vanessa!) sent me a book recently, I picked it up, turned it over, and looked at the title. "Safe in the arms of God" by John MacArthur.


Well, yeah, I thought....of course he is!


But then as I was feeding Seth, I picked it and opened it, and I didn't put it back down again until I was finished.


I wanted to write about it because I know there are a lot of you who read here who have also lost babies, or had miscarriages, or lost a child. To me, this book, while not earth shattering, was comforting in a massive way to me. The book is scripturally based, and proves without a doubt, from many different biblical verses and references, God's heart for children. Finally, I found all the scriptures that had been floating around in my head but that I couldn't place or that I kept forgetting to go hunt for.


This book also speaks very strongly on the side of "personhood" for miscarried and aborted babies as well as full term infants and children who die, which I thought was awesome. It touches on several issues that have bugged me over the past couple of years, and lays scripture out right in the open so you can go to the source, so to speak. It also has some amazing testimonies from parents who have suffered loss.


It is definitely worth reading, if you have suffered a loss or even if you are trying to better understand the mindset of someone who has lost a child. I am so glad I didn't put it down!

3 comments:

Elyse said...

Glad for you. This will probably be bought soon since I have never lost a child but would like a little insight on the fact! Hang in there!
~Elyse~

Shanda said...

Thank you for the recommendation!

Angela said...

Guess where I am going and what I am buying?!?! I just starting reading your blog and after reading just a few entries I just had to go back to the start and really read your stories. First of all I think Eli is an awesome name probably b/c my son is named Elijah AND Eli's baby pictures are amazing. He is such a beautiful baby boy! Then Seth got me even more hooked. My son Isaiah had hearing problems not as serious as Seth but problems nonetheless! No one could "see" the problems except me until I just called an ENT. They thought he was going to have permanent hearing loss but luckily two sets of tubes later he is fine and a pro at selective listening. I was shocked to see how young he was when he received his first hearing aides since I didn't know that was possible. I am praying for Seth each day and hoping you can get the implants done soon! You have a great blog! Wow sorry that "comment" was so long!

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