Two Minutes of Silence
By Stu
Metzler
Two
minutes of silence.
As parents, we may
often relish two minutes of quiet. However, on Sunday, April 14, we experienced
two minutes of uncertainty in the life of our youngest child.
My wife Laura and I
were awaiting the birth of our little boy along with the nurse and midwife.
When his head appeared, it seemed the midwife was noticing something around his
neck that I couldn't quite see.
I had heard before of umbilical cords being wrapped and knew that we were all anxious for this baby to fully
appear. Our last two children's labor had progressed more rapidly than this
little boy, and as Laura started pushing, I noticed some subtle movements by
our experienced health care professionals.
They said nothing to make
us fear, but they too wanted to get our baby out quickly. The rolling of the
oxygen tank to a closer position. These actions did not worry us. As Laura
pushed him completely out, we noticed his umbilical cord was around his neck.
When our little boy
appeared and the cord was unwrapped, I watched him carefully. His color was not
the best for the first thirty seconds or so. I went with the team as they worked
to get him to take a breath. It all happened so fast, I'm not even sure I
prayed, but Laura later shared that she had as she was still in the birthing
tub.
It was about two
minutes until he took his first breath. As I think back to that time just a few
days ago, I remember what I saw—some subtle movements soon after birth, the
gradual changing of his skin tone, and eventually that first breath.
The time of his birth
was 11:25 on a Sunday morning. Most of our family was in church. Both of
our moms were singing around that exact time. Everyone was praying.
Once he started
breathing, he was returned to Laura and was a great shade of pink! It wasn't
until sometime afterward that we talked to the nurse, and she shared some of
their initial concern. His Apgar score was originally quite low, but it changed
a lot in a few minutes.
Where does our hope
come from in difficult circumstances? Was it in medical professionals? Was it
in previous birth experiences? No, it was in our Lord Jesus Christ, maker of
all of heaven and earth and of this little one.
Over the course of my
life, God has been teaching me to give those I love back to him instead of holding
them too tightly. Having lost my own mother at an early age of nine months,
this has been a long lesson to learn. Despite seeing how God provided a mom who
adopted me and an amazing third family, I often experienced a sense of
abandonment and fear that I would lose others in my life.
It has only been in
the past 15 years or so that I have been coming to realize his plan and how he
has led in the most difficult circumstances of my life. When Laura and I
started dating, I knew she was headed to Haiti in a few short months for at
least the next year. My natural reaction was to hold on tightly and not want to
let her go, but God told me to give her back to him. And here we are—four
children later.
Giving those I love
back to God has been a reoccurring theme in my life. Whether it's for 2
minutes, 2 years, or 2 decades may I learn to wait on and trust in him.
Stu Metzler is proud to be an older cousin of the blog's creator. He lives with his wife and four young children in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster and is probably the loudest person on his block. He tries, and often fails, to be a good husband and father and has had his socks blessed off by our loving and gracious God.
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