Message For Stillborn Baby

Memorial/Grave Side Service

Grace Mikayla Godby

Psalm 139:16

Today we gather to grieve with and support Nick & Jenni Godby.

□ Grace Mikayla was born on April 18 at 7:19pm

□ The excitement of a long awaited pregnancy has come to a terrible, unexpected and painful end.

□ This precious 4lb, 17inch baby was born without life as we know it.

□ In a time like this, we are cut to the very deepest parts of our souls.

□ We are overwhelmed with emotion, with grief, doubts, anger and questions.

o How could God let this happen?

o Why did it happen to us?

o What went wrong?

□ Those are questions for which there are few, if any answers.

I will not insult you by claiming to know what you are going through today.

However, I have stood by the side of others who have suffered the sudden unexpected loss of a loved one.

I’ve learned something through these experiences that I want to share with you today.

I learned that it’s OK:

□ to be confused

□ to be angry

□ to be sad

□ I learned that God is sensitive to our pain and allows us, even desires us to express our emotions to Him.

I want to draw you, Nick & Jenni, Roger & Connie, Mike & Lynn, and all family and friends gathered here today to what I believe is one of the most comforting passages of scripture during this time of loss.

These words were written by King David, and are found in Psalm 139:1-18.

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me.

You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.

You discern my going out and my lying down;

you are familiar with all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"

even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.

I especially want you to hear the words of David from verses 13-16. “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb…My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”

While Grace’s live body was never seen by you she was seen by God.

While her active frame was hidden from us, she was not hidden from God.

Even though her body was small, and did not survive the womb, God knew her.

Verse 16 is especially important.

It says “All the days ordained for me were written in your book before I lived the first one.”

We often see death as untimely, or early – but God is in control.

□ We are surprised, He is not.

□ We don’t understand but He does.

□ We grieve the loss, but heaven welcomes Grace home.

It may be surprising to you to know that King David, who wrote these words, also lost a baby.

In the moments after that loss, David found comfort in knowing, “I can not bring him back to me, but I will one day go to him.”

David rested in the knowledge that his little boy was with God, and he would be with him one day.

Jesus promised that he was preparing a place for those who love Him, and He said, “Let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of Heaven is made up of little ones like these.”