For Everything There is a . . .

The second significant encounter of our vacation was one that I missed because I didn’t go far enough. My wife, fortunately, did not miss the encounter.

We were in Bandon down at Old Town going through the shops on July 7th.

My little one did pretty well, but it is getting more difficult to go into art galleries, as the setting is usually quieter than three-year-old lungs. So after some sight seeing and visits to the local retail establishments, we were ready to go. We got I. buckled into his car seat and then I noticed on the side of a building a little sign that said “Art Show”.  I told T. that I would just run in and see what was in there.

Walking through the door and into a large open area, I saw that the paintings and photography were lining the walls. It doesn’t take me too long in galleries to recognize what I am being drawn to and what does not capture my interest. And nothing in here has necessarily caught my attention. There was also no one else in the room with the exception of two people sitting behind a table on the opposite side of the place. And there was a big open space where there was no art at all. It was as if the artist had already taken down their display. Unimpressed, I only viewed one area and left.

I went to the car and told T. to go look if she wanted to, but there wasn’t much there. She decided to go in and I stayed in the car with the boy. I am not sure how long she was in the building, but it was longer than I had expected. As I glanced in the side mirror, I saw T. coming toward the car with a small paper bag in her hand. I thought that she must have found something to buy.

So here is what we know:
The empty spot on the wall was for a local artist to display his work, but he couldn’t make the show. On June 14, his baby girl was born. They named her Sequoia Iris Reed Rodrigues. Three days later, little Sequoia fell sick. After taking her to the hospital, that little girl was diagnosed with ‘septicemia, an infection in the blood that the doctor said randomly occurs in one in a thousand babies for no known reason.’ And the next day on June 18, four-day-old Sequoia passed away in her mother’s arms.

The people sitting behind the table at the art show were friends of the parents and had held a memorial there for Sequoia the night before. The bag that T. had in her hand was leftover from the service. It contained seeds from a sequoia tree and an iris bulb to be planted in her memory. The man at the table told T. that he felt like he ‘had to do something’. T. could tell that the events had left an emotionally moving impact upon the man. T. wrote a little note of sorrow and encouragement in the journal for the family and then left to go to the car.

This is what I missed because I didn’t go far enough. The story, however, has not left my mind and heart since hearing it. It is tragic enough to lose a loved one, but for that family to go from sheer joy at the birth of their first born to horrific sorrow at her death in four short days, that is, for me, inconceivable. And yet, stuff happens. Bad stuff. And somehow, we are to move on and continue our life journey, wounded and limping with but a short memory of happiness and a longer one of sadness, and all the while knowing that God is there and He cares. And somehow, somewhere, and at sometime, He will bring about good in all of this.

Perhaps little Sequoia’s family have already recognized this based upon these two quotes from her memorial.

“Sometimes love is for a moment …

Sometimes love is for a lifetime …

Sometimes a moment is a lifetime.”

In spite of the pain:

“We would rather have one breath of her hair,

One kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand,

Than an eternity without it.”

I hope than you will learn two things from this encounter I have shared with you. The first is that life here on this earth is ever so fragile and it may end suddenly, so it should be lived doing that which is right and good. And the second is that the only place where you will find lasting peace from your restlessness, complete forgiveness from the things you’ve done wrong, and ultimate comfort for your sorrows, is in, and only in, a relationship with God through trust and acceptance of Jesus as your Savior. Trust that He paid your debt by dying on the cross and through believing in Him you can live the life God has desired for you to live. Even if it is only four days.

We have the bag with the sequoia seeds and the iris bulb. Time to plant a memory. It is the season.  Turn, turn, turn.

P.S. “here is the memorial website”:
http://sequoia.iris.muchloved.com/