This Wednesday we will gather with friends and celebrate the birthday of a beloved baby who is waiting for us to meet him in heaven someday.
I keep thinking about him, the Brave Gibson, and his amazing family. The memories of his life cause my soul to hedge around a love so vast, I can scarcely comprehend it.
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| Holding Gibson last November |
Love and loss, the fight and the victory, they are rabbits we chase all the days of our lives.
Deeper and deeper into God’s Kingdom they draw us, until the questions in our hearts are quieted by His presence and the joy of being one step closer to Him.
Love is not a psychological response to a biological impulse. Anyone who has loved and lost, or adored and won, can tell you that type of definition falls short of what love does to a human life.
Love is weapon of mass destruction against our natural inclinations toward selfishness and mere survival. In true love we glimpse the weight of eternity. Life and all its mess are made small in the shadow of God’s powerful emotion for us.
Gibson’s mama, Beth, can sing and lead worship like an angel. I’ll never forget the Sunday morning that she returned to the front of our church, praising God for his faithfulness.
I cried like a baby. I cried because I knew she was letting Jesus stand up and use her life. I cried because she wouldn’t sit down when God’s promise was to bring her through. I cried because she was sowing a fierce and faithful love into my life, and I knew God better that day because she let me into her life, even when it was full of loss.
Gibson’s life has led us all so much further down God’s rabbit hole.
And so a year later, we will celebrate Gibson. We will celebrate Love.
We will hold the broken bread of the gospel, look up to heaven, and thank God for standing up for us.
Brave Gibson, last year I wrote you a long letter.
Today I write you this short note:
Happy Birthday, Gibson. Thank you for living so bravely and showing us more clearly what love is. We will see you soon, brave boy.
I’m opening up my heart to all God has planned this week. I’m ready to go deeper into His rabbit hole. I have a feeling the next few days will be more beautiful than any of us can really anticipate….
