Being Matt & Nix’s congregation leader, I was privileged to be the person that people came to with communications.  When people begin to pray, God sometimes gives insights into the situation.  People came to me with news of dreams that they had had – one was of Shadrack, Mishak and Abednigo in the Bible story of the fiery furnace, and another figure in the furnace with them.  It was very clear to all of us that God was in the fire with Matt, Nix, Rebekah, Joshua, and Abby.  Another was of Jesus washing hands, as if to say that he was no longer asking us to take responsibility for what happened to Abby, but that he was going to take on that responsibility.  A number of people had very similar dreams of Abby being cradled in God’s arms, or of her running around, singing, dancing, playing.  We did begin by praying that Abby would get better as we always had previously, but there seemed to be something different about this time.  We began to ask God to take the situation, and Abby, into his hands.  We simply asked God to intervene.

 

It was at this time that Matt & Nix felt it right to entrust Abby into God’s care, whatever the outcome was to be.  After that point things seemed to change.  Although there were many ups and downs, there was an atmosphere of peace which seemed to permeate the whole situation.  Abby, too, seemed to become more settled, although her physical health was not improving at all.  At one point, Faith Forster was praying whilst holding Abby’s hand, and her heart rate, which had been very high, came down.  Her oxygen saturation level touched on 100%.  It was clear that something very special was happening.

 

Shortly after midnight, Abby smiled and fell asleep – I am convinced that she fell asleep in Jesus’ arms.  She’ll wake up to a much brighter day.

 

True Comfort

Sometimes we can get away with the shallow comfort that bad things happen for some greater purpose.  Sometimes it doesn’t matter if something was ‘meant to be’.  But Abby wouldn’t let us get away with those shallow ideas.  Abby’s life was never intended to be as it was.  Something went wrong, and yet we see that we have a God who wants to be involved. He comes close and in the end takes care of everything, whether through healing or taking us to be with him.  That doesn’t become true because I believe it.  I believe it because God showed it to be true in the flesh and blood, in the death and resurrection of Jesus.  There’s a man in heaven, and there’s a beautiful little girl with him.

 

Abby has a family who did everything that they could to show her that she was loved for the short time that they had her.  And although there may be no way back from here, there can be a way forward. As Stuart, Matt’s brother, wrote: “We’ll see you soon, Abby”.