A Blessing of Peace

**Sharing this week with a request from Hardy’s mother that you keep him in your prayers as he prepares to make his way into the world. If you have a connection with achondroplasia or a story you would like to share with Hardy’s family, please reach out here.**

In the Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples before his crucifixion that the Holy Spirit would come to live inside of every believer. It is amazing to think that the same Spirit who dwelled in Luke and John is the same Spirit who dwells in us today. As vessels of Christ, 21st century believers are still tasked with sharing the Word with others. The Living Word has a way of presenting itself at exactly the right time. God knows the daily path each of us will walk before we even wake in the morning and often uses His disciples to place Him on that path for us to notice. I recently experienced this when I returned to school for our staff inservice and was listening to a devotion given by one of our bible teachers who has a passion for studying Hebrew.

The last few weeks have been a difficult walk for a family very dear to mine who are expecting their second baby this month. They found out this summer that their soon to be born son, Hardy, has achondroplasia. While achondroplasia is the most common form of dwarfism, the odds of Hardy having this diagnosis are far from common with the estimations ranging from 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 40,000. I can’t speak specifically to what others are feeling, but there has been a spiraling range of emotions throughout our community as we have cried together, shared our fears and questions, and most importantly, prayed. While our human nature leads us to worry about the unknown, our hearts know that God’s ways are above our own and that this little boy is fearfully and wonderfully made by a creator who does NOT make mistakes. Our greatest prayer for Hardy now is that he will accept the Lord and live a life filled with the Holy Spirit.

As shock and grief have begun to settle into acceptance, there is a peace beginning to unfold over all those who already deeply love this baby. However, none of us were promised a life without challenges and for Hardy, there will be some obvious physical ones. One common trait of people with achondroplasia is what is referred to as “trident” or “starfish” hands. This trait can be seen at birth (sometimes even before) and is where the middle and ring fingers diverge, creating a space between them and forming what pop culture would refer to as the “Spock salute” from Star Trek.

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:

 The Lord bless you
    and keep you;
 the Lord make his face shine on you
    and be gracious to you;
 the Lord turn his face toward you
    and give you peace.

So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.'”

-Numbers 6:22-27

After spending the last couple weeks learning everything I can about achondroplasia, I felt a shoulder tap from Heaven when our bible teacher discussed the very hand formation my friend was worried about already showing up on Hardy’s ultrasounds. Leonard Nimoy, the actor who portrayed Spock was actually inspired to adapt his famous onscreen hand gesture from his childhood observations attending an orthodox synagogue. In Jewish tradition, there is a priestly blessing that is given with hands held up over the recipients forming the Hebrew letter, Shin. Shin symbolizes the word shaddai, which translates to “Almighty God” and the beginning of shalom, meaning peace.

Looking further into this, I learned that during this blessing given by the kohanim descendants, one is not supposed to look at them in order to better focus on the prayer being said and not the deliverer. The kohanim are merely an envoy for the word of God just as believers are vessels for the Holy Spirit, designed to share and proclaim His name with others. One of those vessels shared God’s word with me this week as I realized that The Almighty’s perfect creation currently growing in my friend’s womb is already showing us peace as we get a glimpse of his little hands gesturing “shin.” This beautifully designed child is a reminder that the Almighty God has put his name on us and will bless us, keep us, and give us peace.

Love, Molly

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