We received a call first thing Saturday morning. Totally unexpected. I’d posted a few days prior, something about it being a big week for our family. And it was. So much bigger than imagined.
And tinier, too.
Our California son and his wife were expecting their first baby in early September. But as it turns out the little fella was in a bit of a hurry to make his appearance. Five weeks early to be exact. The first Saturday morning in August, just as we were brewing our coffee here in the midwest, Nils and Brina were checking into Labor and Delivery in a hospital out in Orange County. Preparing to be parents.
All day I was glued to my phone. Not my normal. Kyle and I attended a wedding of one of my college students. A beautiful young lady who will be teaching this year at the Christian Montessori where little boy Nils started his childhood education. I zoomed in on a photo from the Hand In Hand website, taken in 2004. There in the front row, missing his two front teeth and sporting his schoolboy uniform… I showed anyone who’d indulge me… “That's my son, and today he’s becoming a Daddy!”
A Daddy.
The hours crawled by with a text here and there, assuring us things were progressing quite nicely. No worries. So I tried not to worry, and I prayed and I waited and I wondered. Five weeks ahead of schedule…
By evening we were at our favorite Pizza Farm with favorite neighbors and it had been a while since we’d had an update which kept me terribly distracted. But Papi said the silence was because our grandson was busy making his big entry, and later we’d find out his prediction was precisely right. While we sat in lawn chairs eating Sweet & Spicy, our Brina was doing the very best hard work of being a woman, and later she’d say it just like that. “I have a whole new appreciation for women.” No kidding.
We were watching the Olympics when my phone buzzed and I could see right away it was Nils on FaceTime and I may have broken a record answering the call. “There’s a baby!!” Kyle said he’d never seen me so fired up, seeing that little bundle on his mama’s chest, everyone peaceful and smiling and wonderfully fine. “He’s perfectly fine.” Our five-and-a-half-pound miracle grandson.
“His name is Quoia. Like Sequoia.”
Ever since Nils and Brina knew they were having a boy they’d known his name. They’d kept it a secret, except to tell us we’d never guess, which of course we tried. We knew his middle name would be Nils like his Daddy. And we knew his first name was inspired by a special place.
Quoia, for Sequoia. One great name for one tiny human. Our grandson is named for the mightiest tree.
“Welcome to the world little Quoia. I can’t wait to learn more about you. Even though you’re a tiny fellow right now you are named after a very big tree. ‘May you be like a tree planted by streams of water, always bearing fruit.’ Psalm 1:3. I love you and can’t wait to meet you.”
I sent my welcome text, overwhelmed by the significance. Day two of life outside the womb, every doctor and nurse making similar comments. “So healthy and strong for 35 weeks!”
Like a flourishing tree.
This metaphor might be my favorite in all of Scripture.
I am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God; I trust in God’s faithful love forever and ever. Psalm 52:8
The righteous thrive like a palm tree and grow like a cedar tree in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, they thrive in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age,
healthy and green. Psalm 92:12-14
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children, like young olive trees around your table. Psalm 128:3
The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends its roots out toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8
I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. John 15:5
“What is the kingdom of God like, and what can I compare it to? It’s like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches.” Luke 13:18-19
Like the Great Sequoia…
When the seed of our grandson was planted inside his mama’s womb waters, he was well on his way to a flourishing life. His Mommy and Daddy are living the metaphor—faithful trees, bearing fruit for the kingdom of heaven. Rooted deep, deep, deep in the love of their Father. Singing praises always in the house of their God. Sending out shoots of Jesus’ blessing.
My son and his wife, and now a baby. A tiny boy, thriving. Drinking deeply at his mama’s breast, strong lungs fully formed like branches of a tree. We heard his hardy cry yesterday when his first-time Dad changed a first ever diaper. First of many.
Grow strong, little Quoia, out there in sunny California. Papi and Nana will be there to meet you soon.
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