Mighty to Save

So, the other day I picked my nephews up from school. Carter and Kyle, 5 and 4 respectively, go to preschool. I decided to pick them up to begin our Christmas celebration!!! Every Monday, now until Christmas, we are going to have some Christmas fun...this past Monday we decorated our tree and we watched Rudolph and The Toy that Saved Christmas. The other Mondays will hopefully hold fun crafts and baking cookies and watching more Christmas movies, we will see! Oh, this past Monday we also attempted to make chocolate covered popcorn...haha! Not really fun at all but yummy...I am so not a baker, cooker or even helper in the kitchen and not really a thinker either so that didn't really turn out so well. : ) But half chocolate covered popcorn is still pretty yummy! The boys didn't mind at all!

So, I guess what I want to tell you is what my nephews taught me that day. They always teach me something, it never fails! We decided to go see Ellersley at the cemetery, I take them there quite often and so does their Mommy and they just love it. We got there and it was quite rainy outside but we got out and looked at her new headstone. It was just put in on the 22nd and they had not seen it. I read what it said... "Ellersley Grace Deem August 13, 2011...Little Ones to Him Belong". Carter decided that even though it was freezing and kind of raining, we needed to take a walk which is the norm when we go visit her. So, I said ok and we walked around for a while until my hands were about to freeze from the cold. We got back to the car and I was putting Kyle in his seat and I looked over at Carter and he was bending down in front of Ellersley's stone. He stood up and came to the car and he said, "Nicki, I'm sad that baby Honu died." This wasn't the first time, we've talked about our sadness lots of times. I said, "I know baby, me too." He got in the car and that was that.

As we were pulling away I told them to blow her kisses and they did a thousand times over. Carter said, "When we drive to school we drive past here and we always say 'We love you baby Honu' and we blow her kisses...and then we sing songs to her." I said, "Oh, you do, well what do you sing?" Kyle piped up, "We sing this Nicki...Savior, you can move the mountain..God is mighty to save, mighty to save...". Enter my tears...I said "Oh yeah! I love that song and I'm sure baby Honu LOVES to hear you sing that to her!" Kyle proceeded to sing the rest of the song for me while Carter joined in..."Do you have that song Nicki?" Kyle asked. "I am pretty sure I do Kyle." I turned it on and those little men in my back seat sang it as loud as their little voices could manage.

Savior, He can move the mountains My God is Mighty to Save, He is Mighty to Save Forever, Author of Salvation He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus conquered the grave!

Now, as I sat there and listened to them singing I could not stop smiling. I could not stop smiling because my Savior, He can move the mountains. He is Mighty to Save. He is FOREVER. He is the Author of Salvation. He rose and CONQUERED THE GRAVE! HE CONQUERED THE GRAVE! Don't you know what that means? And I know as a 4 and 5 year old all they know is that this song is about Jesus and that Jesus and baby Honu LOVE to hear their little voices. But, in my 29 year old mind, I know that it means that ONE SWEET DAY I will hug my baby girl again. That because of my Jesus and because he conquered the grave, my baby will not be in the ground forever. That her little soul, and who she was to us and to everyone who knew her, is in heaven waiting for us. Mighty to Save was a song and a phrase my husband had a very hard time with directly after Elle's death. If God was so Mighty to Save, where was he when Elle stopped breathing? Oh, the pain of that statement is so very real and so very raw still 3 and a half months later and honestly, I don't have the answer. I don't know why, I probably won't ever know why and that was a fear of mine but it is becoming so very unimportant to me. Why is the wrong question...The question we should be looking for and asking is How? How Lord will you use this tragedy? How will you be glorified as MIGHTY TO SAVE? Could it be through our lives? A testimony to His goodness, to the JOY that He gives in spite of the pain? Could it be through volunteering at the hospital and telling almost everyone I come in contact with about Ellersley and how wonderful our Jesus is? Could it be through people turning to God because of Ellersley's short life? Could it be through open doors and open hearts? Let it be Jesus...let it be...

Lessons from a 4 and a 5 year old...they are too many to count.

Thank you Jesus for being Mighty to Save! Thank you for moving mountains! Thank you for being Forever! Thank you for being the Author of my Salvation! Thank you for conquering the grave and for saving us from death! Thank you for the never-ending promise of Heaven and all the Joy that it holds for those who love you! Thank you for Carter and thank You for Kyle! Thank you for the lessons that we learn from those who are so pure and innocent...Thank you for the Joy that they bring to our life. Thank you for keeping our sweet Ellersley safe and warm. Thank you for holding all of our dreams until the day we can fulfill them with her. Thank you for being just a whisper away...

Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.

Elle's Mommy