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Our children, the precious little ones, are greatly beloved and nurtured until they can transition into adulthood, however they will always be our dear children no matter their age or station in life. So too, God looks upon us as His precious children who will ultimately transition into the God family together in the future.
Last Sabbath we heard special music which was incredibly poignant. Representing the Balugo and Edge families, one member from both sets of grandparents stood up to sing in unison the hymn of the same title as this article. Such a poignant message for the sick and suffering children, not only in our congregation, but from all over the world as we learn of their plight through the Prayer List, which is read from during the course of each service.
Our congregation was moved to tears whilst listening to the touching harmony in the meaningful and pertinent lyrics of “Suffer the Children” for the delightful, fun loving, friendly and endearing little boy who has quickly found a firm place in all of our hearts. Sammy’s parents, David and Shawn, just recently moved to Adelaide from across the Victorian border. Many times prayers have been said for our small congregation to grow and have the blessing of children as this is something we have not experienced — babies and very young ones of tender age. At exactly the right time, God blessed us with not one, but two precious little ones as Sammy is now an older brother to his sister Harper. I have always thought it would be marvellous to fellowship with all ages represented in our local congregation and now I know it is the most wonderful of all things. The dynamics change so completely. Children are spontaneous and spread contagious joy wherever they are and this is how we have enjoyed having Samuel Anthony Edge — “Sammy”, with us.
Since his hospitalisation it is just not the same. Sammy’s spiritual family miss him and dearly hope and pray God will heal him swiftly. His sudden illness now has a name of FIRES which is an acronym for Febrile-Infection Related Epilepsy Syndrome. This is an incredibly rare condition and can be fatal. Those who survive can have a lifetime of complications and issues to deal with. Sammy was struck down with FIRES suddenly and dramatically through convulsions and epileptic seizures advancing to the stage of Status Epilepticus — something I have learnt theoretically about in university classroom studies but have not ever seen in almost 30 years of nursing.
Why did this happen? Why Sammy? He was a healthy 2 and a half year old running around one day, laughing and sharing his books and toys, and the next symptomatic of an unexplained illness that took hold by threatening his life in the middle of the night when he required rescue breaths.
We fervently pray for God to intervene and heal Sammy so he can live life to the full and return to his spiritual family each Sabbath, where we can all truly celebrate these precious relationships that we simply do not know how long we have to experience. Each day, every Sabbath, is truly a gift from God. That is all we can do, relish and savour these times now with our precious children, pray for their development and relationship with God, and be the best example we can be in order to teach, lead and instruct so that they will deeply desire a close relationship with their Creator for life.
Until then we seek God’s perfect will in when He will restore Sammy. We will also give grateful thanks for all the times that God has given this most loved and cherished boy to us in order to nurture him and be reminded of needing to have humble childlike qualities in order to enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Scripture says in Matthew 18:2-5 “Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, 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. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me”. Powerful words indeed.
Our children can teach us many things too if we are willing to appreciate them with our time and love. Sammy has taught me to have more joy as the enemy often tries to steal my joy. Seeing Sammy fall over while running around laughing and giggling, but then get up immediately to do it all over again, is a strong and powerful example to live life to the full and enjoy every moment. So let us focus on today, for tomorrow has enough trouble of its own (Matthew 6:34).
Earnest, heartfelt prayers continue and those who can fast, please fast and pray for our precious Sammy as in 1 Corinthians 12:26 so aptly points out “if one suffers, all suffer along with him”.