YOUR TURN: Sharing a story of Faith
If you are reading this column, it is likely you are a human being. Very likely. As I learned from Bill Bryson’s books, A Short History of Nearly Everything and The Body, you are a collection of ten thousand trillion cells. Little is known about how these cells came together to be you. You are unique among all human beings. There is no other exactly like you. In all human history that is behind or in front of us, no other human being has been or will be you.
Every part of your body is intricately woven together to result in a perfectly well-organized entity that allows you to know and do all the things you know and do. You experience physical life through five senses—touch, hearing, taste, smell, and sight. You experience the fullness of life through human emotions—grief and joy; foreboding and security; enmity and love; longing and fulfillment.
This brings me to faith, or rather to Lillian Faith, the child in the nearby picture who is cradled in the arms of her parents, Pastor Jason and Jessica Dampier. Lillian is a miracle resulting from years of prayer, expensive medical treatment, extreme patience, persistence, and diligence. The last three years have been especially challenging for Jessica and her faithful husband. A caring nurse in the parish they serve administered Jessica’s frequent in vitro shots as the couple that longed for a child never gave up in the face of cruel disappointment. The baby who was never to have been was baptized recently in front of hundreds of worshippers including dozens of young children sitting near the baptismal font.
Jason served five years in Gastonia as an Associate Pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Garrison Boulevard before accepting a call as Senior Pastor to Word of God Lutheran Church in Sharpsburg, Georgia. In their time in Gastonia, Jessica and my wife, Carla, became close friends. Carla encouraged Jessica as she struggled in her difficult quest to be a mother. Joy unimaginable filled our hearts when we learned that Lillian Faith was born in November. We thus traveled to Georgia recently to attend Lillian’s baptism. Our traveling companion was Seminarian Cody Carpenter who worked alongside Jason in his ministry at Holy Trinity. Cody, who will one day baptize babies like Lillian, delivered a sermon before the baptism challenging Jason and Jessica and the entire congregation to faithfully teach Lillian the commandments and the tenants of the Christian faith, to bring her to and join her in worship, and to guide her in her daily life. Cody also reminded us that we are all children of God, made in his image and endowed with blessings upon blessings.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) has been in the news lately as the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling that frozen embryos are human beings, thus rendering IVF unlawful in the state. Essentially the court ruled that frozen embryos cannot be destroyed as they often are in intricate medical procedures. The governor and state legislature are working actively to pass a law that will override the court’s ruling and permit this important therapy once again in Alabama.
Human beings are complicated creatures. We know more about them now than before, but we will never know all there is to know. When we hold a baby in our arms and cradle them to our chests, our hearts warm because we understand why we are here: to bring new life into being; to know and love a child, this child; to teach and guide them; to be there when they fall; and to watch with pride as they grow and learn and mature.
Jessica and Jason, their families and friends, and two congregations prayed for many years for a miracle. Faith brought them a child. They named her Lillian Faith.
Michael K. McMahan is a resident of Gastonia.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: YOUR TURN: Sharing a story of Faith
