Harrison was stillborn January 21, 2024. May the Lord comfort us in our sorrow that we may be a comfort to others who also mourn. +++
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
I begin by sharing my deep sadness for you and this terrible loss of a child whom you anticipated, prayed for, and began loving months ago. Saying, “My condolences,” just doesn’t seem to cut it. I’m heartbroken that I am with you today to lay your son, this precious gift of God, to rest.
I am glad, as much as I can use that word, that you decided to have a service in Harrison’s honor, to remember his brief life and grieve your loss. In doing so, you not only recognize the sadness of his death, but you also thank God for the gift He gave you, albeit for too brief of a time. You respect the gift of life by mourning his death.
I am sure you have innumerable questions – the whys, the what-abouts – and, sadly, you will probably never have answers for them. Doctors, with their wisdom and skill, may provide a little bit of an answer, but that doesn’t really help us understand.
So, let us turn with humility and faith to our Lord Jesus Christ and His Word, for it is in Him that we find hope in the face of helplessness.
On your Facebook page Sunday evening, Morgan, you shared the sad news about Harrison. But, you also included these words from Isaiah 43:2: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” Isaiah 43:2
This short verse has three expressions about going through very difficult times: passing through waters, passing through the rivers, and walking through fire. For the people who heard Isaiah preach, it would have suggested their forefather’s journey through the Red Sea, the Jordan River, and the battles against God’s enemies. They would have recalled how God, in His great mercy, preserved Israel even in their greatest of distress. They would have remembered but also understood how it applied to their own suffering under the hands of the Babylonians and Assyrians: that God was with them, also, while they went through their own waters, rivers and fires.
For you, those words of Isaiah also stand as His promise for you, that in this time of grief, sorrow, and unanswered questions, God is with you, He will not let you be overwhelmed, He will not let you be consumed in your loss. “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel,” he says, “Your Savior.”
Those last two words amaze me: Isaiah was preaching roughly 700 years before the Savior was born, but the promise of God was already as sure and certain as though Jesus was standing there with Isaish. That’s how certain God’s Word is: when He says it, you can believe it, even if the fulfillment is far, far away. God’s salvation of the world would be accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus, still centuries in the future, but it is already certain for Isaiah as if it had already happened.
That is how it is for us, with the resurrection of all flesh. Our Lord’s death and resurrection, what happened 2000 years ago, began the fulfillment of the promises of God for us, as His people. He is your Savior, saving you from death – not just temporal, but the eternal death our sins deserve. Instead, He redeems us and unites us with Himself in life and in death.
Isaiah 43 has always been a favorite passage of mine, but I have always been more fond of the first verse: “But now this says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
Even before you carried your son in your body, you were carrying him to the Lord in your prayers. When you discovered you were expecting, those prayers became even more intense, more personal as you chose a name, and could implore the Lord’s mercy for your unborn son, Harrison. When you came to the Lord’s House, your son heard the Word of the Lord. Even though he did not understand it, the Spirit works in those words, even in the hearts of the littlest of all of God’s creation. He, who created your son, He who formed your son, knew your son before you knew him. And, before you ever named him Harrison, God had already called him by name and made Harrison his.
Your intention was to rear Harrison in the faith, to bring him to his own passing through the waters of Baptism, to enjoy years and decades of the blessing of a son. Death robbed you of those parental duties and joy. Instead of bringing him home to sleep and grow in a well-prepared nursery, we are here today, placing him to rest in the ground.
We are familiar with Jesus’ words in the reading from John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life…” We know those words, and in times like this, we cling to that promise. But I want you to know this. When Jesus stood at his friend’s grave, he did not do so stoically. He wept. Real, hot, wet human tears. That’s important for you to know today. The One who is Your Savior, your son’s Savior, the one who conquered death with His own death, He still wept when Lazarus died. Do not be ashamed of your tears. They have been sanctified by your Savior’s tears. If people tell you to stop crying, or to hurry up and get over it, it’s because they don’t understand. Jesus does. So, you remember Jesus’ tears – His tears for you, in your grief, His tears for your son, whom death took too soon from you.
But, then remember the promised resurrection day when tears will be dried and sorrow will be turned into dancing. You, with Isaiah and all of the faithful who died trusting the promises of God who created, formed, and redeemed you, you will see each other. And, more than that, you will see Jesus, Your Savior, who carried you through the waters and fires into Himself for eternity.
But you’re not there, yet. Today, it’s tears. And those tears are holy. Weep freely…but do not weep as one who has no hope. Weep with Isaiah. Let the tears flow.
Allow me some creative license, imagining as if Isaiah was speaking to you today:
When the tear-waters pass through your eyes, I will be with you,
And through the rivers that run down your cheeks, they shall not overwhelm you;
When your eyes burn and your heart aches, you shall not be consumed.
For I am the Lord Your God, the Holy One, Jesus, your Savior.
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