In the Arms of His Heavenly Father
Spending time with William - Saturday 5/2/26
In the Arms of His Heavenly Father
On Sunday afternoon (5/3/26) William went home to be with the Lord.
His brain, even after all of the treatments, was too injured for his body to be able to sustain life. He went to be with the Lord without suffering and the Lord truly walked with us through the valley of the shadow of death. (Psalm 23) Although it was very difficult and it seemed as though there was much to fear his rod and staff comforted us and gave us peace. My wife an I cannot thank you enough for your prayers, God has used them to sustain and strengthen us and give us peace. I cannot imagine how we would have been doing without them.
Gospel hope in the face of death
This is something no parent ever wants to face, this is something no human ever should have faced. Death is an intrusion in God’s world and Mollie and I are fighting to remember this, “…sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—”(Romans 5:12) Death is in this world due to the decisions of man, when Adam chose to listen to Satan rather than God this horrible enemy invaded God’s “very good” world.(Gen. 1:31) We hate death and we wish our son did not have to die, however we know that for those who have faith in Christ “…though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25)
We praise God that although we ushered death into the world by our sin he has sent his Son to conquer death and to bring life. "Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18- 19) We have full confidence that our God who is the Father of all mercies has received William in to His presence through Jesus Christ. We look to scripture alone for this hope where we see David saying about his son “…I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:23) and we see our Lord permit children into His presence on earth saying "Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 19:14) Although we grieve the loss our son we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, we rejoice with great joy that he has experienced full healing, we rejoice that he is experiencing “fullness of joy” and “pleasure forevermore” in the presence of God. (Psalm 16) William never opened his eyes on this earth, what a gift it is to us that his first sight ever may have been the face of our Lord that we all long to see. We hate death, we wish our son did not die, but we rejoice that Christ has triumphed over death.
Answered Prayers
In just 8 days 14 thousand peoplehave visited Williams website, 163 people have signed up to receive updates and prayer requests and countless more have labored in prayer. So did God not hear our prayers? Does God not care about our son? The bible unashamedly proclaims that “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) and addresses God as “…you who hear prayer…” (Psalm 65:2) We know the character of God as a Father because Jesus says that “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”(Matthew 7:9) So how can we make sense of this? It is impossible that God did not hear our prayers, it is not the character of God to withhold a good gift from those who ask for it. Consider your prayers, maybe you prayed that William would be fully healed, maybe you prayed that Mollie and I would be able to be with him, maybe you prayed that he would get out of the hospital and that this whole situation would come to an end. Maybe you prayed for a miracle to happen? Did God not answer each of those prayers? William is totally and completely healed in the presence of God, never to be sick or to suffer again. My wife and I will go to be with him, just as David declared about his son. He is out of the hospital and the whole situation has come to and end. A miracle has happened, William has been accepted into the presence of Jesus Christ. As Mollie and I reflect on everything that has happened we are amazed at God’s grace to answer all of our prayers, not in the way we had imagined and honestly not in the way he had hoped. But God has fully and completely answered our prayers in the way He saw best to answer them. We submit to His infinite wisdom and we marvel at His amazing grace.
Heart-wrenching Grief
Though we marvel at the grace of God we still experience immense grief. We “…do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) but we still grieve. As our Lord wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus even knowing he was soon going to resurrect him we grieve the death of our son knowing that he too will be resurrected. In an effort to let you into our hearts that you may “…weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15) and bear our burdens with us (Galatians 6:2) I wanted to share some of the realities we are facing now.
Rather than making plans to bring our son home we made plans for end of life care. Rather than looking for a crib for our son we have to look for a coffin. Rather than resting and playing with our newborn we are busy visiting cemeteries and planning a funeral. We are grappling with the confusing reality that everything has changed but in a way nothing has changed at all. We still have another child to care for, we will continue to go to church, I will return to work, and the reality of everyday life will go on. Our son made an indelible mark upon on hearts but evidence of his life in this world is somewhat unseen in our day to day lives.
One of the greatest blessings of this whole sorrowful situation is the amount of people who have reached out to us sharing very similar stories. It is easy for us to feel alone, to think we are the only people in the world who have faced back to back difficult childbirths and the loss of a baby. We have been shown by God’s grace that we are not. While this is very sad to think that others have faced this, it is also very comforting. There is no room for a victim mindset, our worldview has expanded dramatically and we have been given a gift of taking our eyes off of ourselves and seeing that others have suffered immensely as well. In all of this we are profoundly grateful that we have Christ, without him and without his body (the church) we would have been crushed under this weight, instead we have been made stronger.
We grieve but not as those without hope. We invite you simply to grieve with us, to sit in silence and mourn the loss of our son. We also invite you to point us to Christ, to remind us that our Redeemer lives and that our son is not in a grave but he is with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:8) We want you to know that we honestly don’t know what we need. We will probably feel upset if people act too normal and feel upset if they act too weird, all of us will need to rely on the grace of the Lord and our common bond in the Spirit during this time.
Most of all we don’t want our son to be forgotten, we want to talk about how cute he was and how big he was and how excited we are to see him one day. We are grateful for your love and prayers and support and look forward to telling you all about our precious William.
*more info about how to help can be found at the bottom
The Beautiful Providence of God
As if giving us hope in the face of suffering and death was not enough, our Good Shepherd desired to display his glory and miracle working power even further through Williams life and death.
It is with immense gratitude and joy that we share that Williams body was healthy enough to qualify for organ donation. We have been told that this is extremely rare for an infant. The decision to pursue organ donation after Williams death was a slow and painful one. Often we grieved over the added pain and complexity this decision added to the situation but we are so grateful that God worked in us to be willing to make this decision. We learned through this process that sacrifice takes sacrifice and to give something means to loose something. These are very simple concepts but the difference between considering and experiencing sacrifice was profound for us. This brought us into greater reflection of the actual sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, that it was not some theoretical idea considered by a far away deity, but it was a lived experienced by the one who was very man of very man and very God of very God.
I don’t share this to impress anyone or puff ourselves up. It is not by our own wisdom that we considered others needs during this time or by our own strength that we persevered through the challenges this decision posed. It is solely by the grace of God through the example of Christ in scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives that we were able to do this. We considered the desperation of our situation and our need for a miracle and realized that is exactly how many many other parents are feeling about their children. Once it became obvious to us through the results of the tests that William would not be able to live we found such great joy in being able to play a small part in relieving the desperation of those other parents, knowing the joy it would have brought us if the same was done for William. Williams heart will be used to save the life of a young girl on the east cost, she was born just over 2 weeks ago and has been in the hospital since birth. We are brought so much peace and joy to consider the relief and happiness of her parents upon hearing the news of a life saving surgery becoming possible and we honor our son for his generosity. Not only has the gift of temporal life been given through the death of our son but the message of the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ has been proclaimed through the death of my son, even to you dear reader. Take heed that you do not let this free gift of God pass you by.
We praise our God, the living God, the God who gives life and breath and everything, the God who answers prayer and works miracles, the God who suffered on our behalf, the God who offers the free gift of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, the God who sustains us and shepherds us during this time, the God who takes what is meant for evil and uses it for His glory and our good, and the God who will bring us back to our Son. We thank you all for your prayers and love and support and we say with eternal triumph, covered in the blood of the King of Kings
“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
(1 Corinthians 15:55)
Prayer Requests
That God would give us joy and strength and help us to mourn
That the message of the gospel would take root in many people’s hearts through the death of our son
That God would give us wisdom to plan everything related to the funeral and when to return to work
That God would help us not to isolate ourselves during this time but to reach out to the body of Christ for help.
That God would equip us through this suffering to be more like Jesus and to help others throughout the rest of our lives
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Our greatest need is prayer, please read the prayer requests and spend time praying for us.
If you are compelled to help us financially with funeral and other costs please email info@hopeforwilliam.org directly.
Thank you so much! -
We are planning to hold a “Celebration of Life” that is open to the public within the next few weeks.
More details will be avaliable soon. -
Times like this are incredibly difficult and bring up the hardest questions. I promise you that the Christian faith based upon the Word of God is the only thing that has the answers you a looking for. I urge you not to run to worldly sources counselors for answers, they do not have the wisdom you need.
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the council of the wicked…” (Psalm 1:1)
Feel free to contact Pastor David Schexnayder for help or guidance.
Email: dscott@reflit.com
You can also find a church in your area here - https://opc.org/locator.html
