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The moment I knew you were coming to be a part of our

family, I knew what your name must be if you were a
girl- Mercy. You are a gift of God's great mercy to me
and to our family. God has shown great mercy to us
throughout my pregnancy and delivery. You were
breech until just a few days before you were born, and
then God saw fit in His kiridness and mercy to cause you
to tum. Although labor was much longer than usual for
Jlle, the delivery was quick, uncomplicated and thrilling.
Daddy and big sister, Anne, were nearby and Anne will
always say with a note of awe in her voice, ''I was the first
person to see my little sister take her first breath." It was
an exciting mornentforall of us-Joey and John came in
just minutes later to hold and kiss .ou and welcome our
newest angel to this covenant family.
God knew just what our family needed, dear little one, to
bind us even closer together and draw our hearts to Him,
and what weneeded was you. TIlereis nothing like anew
little life in a family to glVe us all a refresher course on
Basic Christian Living in the Home .... everyone must
practice a great deal of self-sacrificial living, the three
teenagersandMom and Dad, because babies disrupt the
"natural" course of life as we know it here on earth!'! We
are all forced to re-examine our priorities and in SOme
instances, shift .out of "neutral" and get back in!,> "drive"
and back on track where we have carelessly slipped off.
I am much more diligent at prayer and Bible reading
because I know I will not be able to mother you and your
brothers and sister and be a help-meet for my husband
without God's boundless power and wisdom sustaining
me. And most of all, your coming to out house has given
us all an opportunity to realize how much we truly love
each other and to watch that love ~ and grow from
our hearts to encompass you, tiny grrl, in its warm circle.
How very blessed you are, Mercy, to be bom into a family
that has claimed God's covenant mercy down through
many generations. Thomas Gill wrote a paraphrase of
Psalm 90 in 1864: "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-
plai:e inevery generation; thy J>C(?ple still have known thy
grace and blessed thy consolation: through every age
Thou heard'st our cry, through every age we found Thee
The Counsel of Cbalcedon January 1991 Page 10
9{ptes
nigh, our Strength and our Salvation." May you never
kriow a day wlien you did not love and serve our Lord
. Jesus. Even from these earliest days of infancy, I pray
God is renewing your small heart and mind to hear His
voice inHis WOId and to 10veHim always. Myprayerfor
you is not that you would be any of those thlngs the world
calls great and wonderful, for vanity and ~ t i n s s lie in
the way of worldly standards bereft of God s wisdom. I
pray that Jesus will always be your highest joy and that
you will never depart from loving and serving Him. For
Iknow thatas you do, covenant blessings will be lavished
upon you down through your generations.
Psalm 139 is a beautiful expression of the awe and
wonder David felt about life: God Himselffashioned us
according to His exact specifIcations. We are each
uniquely God-like, manifesting in out characters, oUr
personalities, and even in our appearance the image and
character of our Creator. A Rembrandt could never be
mistaken for aPicasso because each painting.reflects the
style and personality of its creator. Justso, tboughIllJUTed
by sin, we mittor the Divine, the Immortal in our mortal
flesh. The wondet of it is almost too great to realize.
Nodding head, downysoftnebl;,
cheeks of rose-petals, skin like silk,
cherub features, sweet and dainty,
you've rapped yourself around my heart.
Dearest baby, tiny new girl,
. smallest angel, precious one,
welcome to a world of wonders,
for our great God made it so.
And He made and brought you to us,
as a gift that we would know
that His favor rests upon us-
You are our reward
What a joy to bring new life into the world, and what a
special new life you are, Mercy Rebecca Frances
Morecraft!