God is not dead;Nor does he sleep

God Is Not Dead Nor Doth He Sleep

-written last year

Athena and I have read for over two hours tonight. So many books. My daughter in my arms, a book in my hands and the words flowed like a river .Later we were praying. As we were praying tonight my 6 year old Athena said:

" God stay in my heart till I am old and I will do everything for you".

How silent I am in her presence. The child who barely lived through that awful night so many years ago in February 2004. The seizures , diapers full of blood, and bleeding intestines did not stop my child. Not even did the diagnosis of autism stop my daughter. Even in silence she loved God so much. No one can tell me different. They were not there.

They were not there as I remember one night we were in the intensive part of the emergency room. She was almost 18 months old. She was enduring a series of unstoppable seizures. She was in a moment of rest. I start to turn the channels on the television for her. It is late at night. I pass a channel that has a pastor on it. She raises her arm and points her finger She starts making a noise. Anytime I would try to change the channel she let me know that she did not want anything but that channel. She was a toddler used to going to church. Even then I think she knew the power of prayer. How she loved God then as well as now.

This is the child that they told me to not expect much of her. That she would never talk, never ride a bike or jump on two feet like any other child. In February of 2009, 5 years almost to the days she had a severe vaccine reaction; she was taken off the autism spectrum completely. The doctor put her on the normal to gifted area of the child development chart. I do not remember the name of the chart in truth.

How these memories and emotions flow through me as I heard my baby girl of 6 pray "God stay in my heart till I am old and I will do everything for you " . How precious and innocent she is. She can pray with such conviction she silences me time and time again. I wonder what God had said to her in those 5 years . I wonder.

My favorite Christmas Carol is from Longfellow's Christmas Bells. It was written in the last year of the American Civil War. A time of bloodshed and severe emotional pain for the United States of America. America was still months away from Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9th 1865. His poem/Carol reflected the prior years of the war's despair, while ending with a confident hope of triumphant peace. All of my life it has been my favorite Carol with deep meaning to me. My favorite line from it is this:
"Then pealed the bells more loud and deep;
'God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;


Here is the complete 7 stanzas of the Carole.

"Christmas Bells"
(The original poem, complete with all seven stanzas)

"I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


Then from each black accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!


And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"


Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

No he does not sleep. There is hope! A diagnosis is not the end but the journey. You are not alone. He is always there willing and waiting on us to call upon his name. For us to ask him to "stay in my heart till I am old and I will do everything for you". Have you done this tonight or any other night? There is no time like now. Let us encourage one another with love and forgiveness.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16