There is a story I really love. I have used it in a sermon. But as I thought about Sandy Fields, whose life we will celebrate today, it came back to me. It’s apparently a true story of a newborn baby’s homecoming. The family’s other child, a precious 4 year old said, “I want to talk to my new little brother” The parent’s smile and said, quite condescendingly I am sure, well of course you can’t talk to him. Any time you want. The child responded. “I want to talk to him now, and alone”
This surprised the parents, and intrigued them. So they let the 4 year old go into the nursery alone with the new baby, but… they put their ears to the door. They wanted to make sure the baby was safe, but mostly they wanted to hear what the four year old was going to say. Now this is the gist of what the four year old reportedly said. “Quick, tell me who made you. Tell me where you came from, I’m beginning to forget.”
I am here to tell you, that if my conversations with Sandy taught me anything, it was that Sandy did not have this little boy’s dilemma. She knew who made her. She knew where she came from. And she knew where she was going
Sandy knew she came from God
She knew she was a child of God
She knew she was a daughter of the King, a true princess
She knew she came from somewhere, from the heart of God
And she knew she was going somewhere. That there was a “something next”
And because she understood this
She could
In spite of illness
In spite of all the difficulties, live each day with …. Well I don’t know quite how to say it.
Enthusiasm seems the closest.
She knew that life is made of days.
And that each day is precious
And you have to live it.
And make the most of it.
And she lived each day with a profound awareness of her mortality. She woke up each morning ready, in the shadow of death, to live this one,
sacred,
miraculous day…
fully.
This surprised the parents, and intrigued them. So they let the 4 year old go into the nursery alone with the new baby, but… they put their ears to the door. They wanted to make sure the baby was safe, but mostly they wanted to hear what the four year old was going to say. Now this is the gist of what the four year old reportedly said. “Quick, tell me who made you. Tell me where you came from, I’m beginning to forget.”
I am here to tell you, that if my conversations with Sandy taught me anything, it was that Sandy did not have this little boy’s dilemma. She knew who made her. She knew where she came from. And she knew where she was going
Sandy knew she came from God
She knew she was a child of God
She knew she was a daughter of the King, a true princess
She knew she came from somewhere, from the heart of God
And she knew she was going somewhere. That there was a “something next”
And because she understood this
She could
In spite of illness
In spite of all the difficulties, live each day with …. Well I don’t know quite how to say it.
Enthusiasm seems the closest.
She knew that life is made of days.
And that each day is precious
And you have to live it.
And make the most of it.
And she lived each day with a profound awareness of her mortality. She woke up each morning ready, in the shadow of death, to live this one,
sacred,
miraculous day…
fully.
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