Angela Beach Silverthorne

 I AM FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE! 

My grandson, Hudson, was born deaf. We have all learned from him about God’s faithfulness. I wanted to share the testimony my daughter, Dana, shared with her MOPS group this morning. We all need to look beyond our present circumstances and see that God continues to bless us in ways that aren’t always obvious.  

I pray you will be blessed by her words like I was. 

In Christ alone I stand,  Angela 

Dana’s testimony: 

A couple of weeks ago we were blessed with a teaser spring day, so my husband and I decided to take our son out for a little walk on a nature trail in town.   It was also just a few days post him getting his cochlear processors on and we wanted to let him just explore things at his speed, without his sisters in his wake.   

We could barely unharness him from his carseat quick enough.  As soon as his feet landed on the ground, he ran full force.  Barely taking time to rub off his hands when his feet couldn’t keep up.  He was bound for exploration. 

Suddenly he FROZE.   

His chin shot up to the sky.  He cupped his hand around his mouth and my 20 month old gasped.  Literally gasped!  His eyes so glued to the sky that it was as if the whole world stopped. 

You see at 20 months old, he was hearing the jets for the first time.  He was hearing his first loud, thunderous sound echo across the sky.  Of the hundreds of times we have heard that or ignored it since his birth, today it was new to him and he seemed to bathe in its wonder.  

I couldn’t help but revel in it myself. 

Every morning when I wake up my kids are instantly chattering, the dog is whining, the alarm is beeping and I just want to throw the covers over my head and hide for just a bit longer.  I moan and groan to the coffee pot, whining because of all the noise. 

When my son wakes up he is completely deaf!  Every day I go to get him, sign to him good morning and kiss his cheek.  He is totally content, but I can tell that by now he is waiting for something…a new routine in our day.  I quickly attach his new “ears”….within minutes he is instantly turned on to the world around him.  He smiles from ear to ear and CLAPS! 

Then why am I still moaning? 

God is using my son to teach me a good lesson.  To stop taking the wonder of this world for granted.  To soak in the beauty, the chaos, the noise…all of it.  To him sound is a miracle, a path of exploration.  When I see him laugh and clap and dance to sounds for the first time I cannot help but feel like his euphoria is contagious.   

See I think at even such a young age, he gets it.  When his cochlears are off prepping for nap/bed time, bath time, pool time, beach time and even when going down slides it is like the world is silenced.  Birds fly, but don’t sing.  Waves crash, but don’t roar.  Lips move, but nothing comes out.  We still talk in other ways, but it is completely silent.  So, I think when he gets his ears on every time it feels new.  I imagine it will his whole life.  I wonder if even as an adult he will revel in his baby cries, his wife’s laugh, or the jet noise even just a little more than the rest of us.   

I pray that I live like each day and sound is a gift.  That when the jets fly overhead I pause, look up and thank God! 

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.”  Psalm 139:14