When we got the message that a baby boy was coming to Garden of Innocence, all our volunteers and coordinators went into action fulfilling their normal assigned tasks. Arrangements were made to pick up the baby, a date for the service was set, a mortuary was arranged to hold him till the service, he was assigned a name, a poem was written, the Knights of Columbus were notified, and all other aspects were performed. A guest minister was scheduled, as well as musicians and everything was set. The baby was named Conrad.
The Friday night before the service I went to bed around eleven o’clock. Lying there I heard my phone ring. “Hello, this is Allan.”
“Hi Allan, this is Rick. I have bad news. I just got a call from the guest minister. He’s in Chicago and his flight was cancelled and he will not make it to the service tomorrow.”
I said, “Rick, don’t worry, I have this covered. I will see you tomorrow.”
I lay there and prayed, “Dear Heavenly Father, You know what needs to be done for Baby Conrad. Please bless me and guide me and enable me to provide a service for this baby tomorrow. Thank you in advance. Amen!”
In the middle of the night, I was suddenly awakened with the thought of the words from Isaiah 55, My thoughts are not your thoughts saith the Lord!
I said to myself, “Okay, that’s the text for the service tomorrow” and went back to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up and headed straight to my computer where I went to my on-line bible to extract Isaiah 55; 6 & 8-9 (NKJV) 6 Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. 8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving and asked for some elaboration on this scripture. I was inspired to look up the meaning of the name Conrad.
I found that Conrad meant Bold & Wise Counselor. “Wow!” I thought, “What bold wisdom has Conrad about to pass on to me?”
I pondered, what does this mean relative to this scriptural statement?
I was taken back to previous services at Garden of Innocence and recalled the conversations I overheard. Things like, “Oh, he’s now an Angel” or “Now she can play on a swing” or “Now he can fly a kite!” And many more of these thoughts were expressed.
I wondered why do we have these thoughts? We like to think of Conrad as an angel, but why? We are comforted by them as we think of an angel with all its angelic characteristics. We like to think he is playing about as he would have had he lived, but why? It is comforting to think this, its familiar to us. We like to think they are well behaved, obedient, “angelic”, that makes us feel good.
I thought these are nice feelings to have but wait, God’s thoughts are higher than these. What would His thoughts be that would be higher?
What are angels, really? There are created by God to serve Him and those He loves. He gave them extraordinary characteristics and power to fulfill that purpose. What is Baby Conrad and all the other babies in our Garden? Angels? But wait, he and all the babies are Children of God and hence much higher than angels.
Imagine now the higher thoughts and ways of God. How does He see Conrad? Not as an angel but as His Child! A Child of God has different characteristics than angels
What do you think God had in mind when Jesus said:
Matthew 18:2-5 (NKJV) 2 Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 3 and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.
So, what characteristics does God see? What is He looking for that is so much higher than ours?
Humble, trusting, accepting of God’s love.
There is one profound difference that Conrad and all our babies have from all the other abandoned babies who have died. These countless souls never had someone to love them. They have no knowledge of God and His love. Who can reach them when all they know is rejections and abandonment? But Conrad and all our babies who also suffered abandonment are different because of your love for them. When we held Conrad in our arms and loved him, we conveyed the Love of God that we share to him. By that act of love, Conrad has now known the love of God.
In these higher perspectives of God, Conrad has become a real treasure, because God now has another messenger to join those who preceded him in the Garden here. What is Conrad’s message? Who does he speak to? I propose to you that they are all who have never felt the love of God through their parents, through those who were meant to love them.
My closing words of the sermon were: Rejoice my friends, you have been today for Conrad the love of God. You held him in your arms, you prayed for his soul, you loved him, and he has loved you. Let us praise our God for giving us this extraordinary opportunity to advance the Garden’s army of babies as they do the great work of proving the love of God to the uncountable multitude of souls that have passed on from this life without ever feeling such love.
TURNING POINT:
This experience taught me that when there is a spiritual need and God calls for someone to step up and step in, He will provide exactly what is needed. Trusting Him give courage to overcome any fear of inadequacy and the resulting experience deepen faith and joy in serving. The perspective from this experience shows the great love that God has for those who departed this life under very terrible conditions, and was highlighted by Jesus visit to those departed who were disobedient in Noah’s time.
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