please take a moment to read the articles I linked to here if you aren’t familiar with the story…

My heart breaks for Chad and his family and this horrible, horrible event.  The past couple of days I have been in constant prayer for Miranda, Chad and his family.  I asked God for a miracle, as did thousands of other praying people around the world, connected through facebook.  I have not prayed this much or this hard in a long time, if ever.  My heart has been continually crying out to God, crying over the awfulness of this whole situation, pleading to God to make it better and to heal Miranda, to give us a miracle, so that Chad could hold his daughter, watch her grow and be the daddy he dreamed of being.  I don’t understand.

Here’s what I do know.  God is powerful. He works in mysterious ways…meaning we don’t always understand his purpose.  It’s beyond our understanding.  Chad has displayed amazing strength and steadfast faith through this tragedy.  His life is an amazing testimony to the power of God, giving us strength when we need it most. I am thinking that something about this whole thing is making me understand the power of God and the importance of prayer.  More than 25,000 people coming together in one day, to pray for Chad, his daughter and his family…that’s power.  That didn’t happen just because of Facebook, it happened because people’s hearts were turned towards God.  Someone posted that maybe the miracle was really just having sweet little Miranda to hold and touch and love on for a few days.  I am sure in some way, even though we all so desperately wanted her to open her eyes and show signs of life, the time that allowed Miranda’s family to love her and hold her and kiss her was healing to their aching hearts.  Though we hardly knew her, we will miss her.  We will miss what we hoped she could be.  But her heavenly father is holding her close, along with her mommy.

I am amazed at the outpouring of love and support that is being shown in our community for this family.  Every post I read is full of love and encouragement for Chad.  So many people are hurting for this family.  As someone posted, “I am in awe over the lives that have been touched in such a short amount of time! It’s a real testament to our awesome God and your walk with Him.” and “Miranda – truly one who is to be admired – you have drawn more people to look at Jesus in your few days of life than some do in 80 years.”