A taste of the Divine

Every once in a while, God gives humanity what I call a taste of the Divine. Sometimes these are grand movements in the Church, and sometimes they are simply moments in the personal experience of a servant of Christ. A couple of nights ago, I received a taste of the Divine through the heart of my wife.

Magdalene was having a rough night. She was little gassy but at the time, we did not know what was wrong. She has been absolutely perfect for us. She rarely ever cries and when she does it does not last for long. Feeding her did not work, nor did holding her against my chest, which works most of the time. We tried to burp her, but to no prevail.

It was a frustrating time for both of us. But, this is why we did not want people staying with us. We need to get through this stuff on our own.

As I sat on the floor of Magdalene's room, fretting over trying to determine what was wrong, Melissa came in and sat beside me. Eventually I passed Maggie over to Liss and she held her for a few minutes. I noticed soon enough that tears began to stream down Melissa's face. As she looked at Maggie she said, "I just love her so much. I just want to fix whatever is wrong." There it was. A taste of the Divine.

I believe that God looks at us at times, with tears in His eyes and says, "I just love you so much. I just want to fix whatever is wrong." The love that God has for us will never be comprehended. it is too great. In the same way, Magdalene will never know how much we love her. It is too great.

As Melissa said these things, Magdalene's crying slowed down and soon stopped altogether. I like to think that she felt her mother's love at that moment. When we are in pain...when we are crying out...when we need love...do we feel the love of God?

Here is the good news. In our relationship with God, we have an advantage over Maggie's relationship with her parents. We can tell God what is wrong. We can hand over the reigns to our pain, our sorrow, and our heartache and allow God to heal. He desires to fix us...we just have to let Him.

Becoming a parent has truly opened my eyes to the love of God in a new and fresh way. Without hesitating...without pause...without thinking twice...I would die for that little girl. It is interesting how Christ felt the same way about us.

Maggie's Smile

We have noticed over the past couple of days that Magdalene will actually smile while she sleeps. She has also done this a couple of times while feeding and just looking around but it most often occurs while sleeping. Is she aware of what she is doing? Probably not...but she does it, and as far as I am concerned...that is a sign of a happy baby. At least a baby with happy dreams. Here is a very short video of her doing her nap-time smile.

Welcome to the real world!

MAGDALENE RAE JOHNSON

Well...after Bible study on Wednesday night, our precious little girl decided that hearing about Jesus was so great that she wanted to join us. That's right...we are now proud parents! Melissa was actually in labor during the Bible study but it was obviously not difficult labor for her since she did not tell me until about an hour afterward.

By the time we got home... the Doctor told us to come in to the hospital. We arrived at approx. 10pm and were told that this was the real deal. We realized then that we would never go home again as a simple couple...but always as a complete family.


Magdalene Rae (named after the first person to spread the good news that Christ was risen) was born at 2:06pm on September 6th, 2007. She is perfect! So beautiful, so sweet, and so small. She was only 6 pounds and 3 ounces and measured in at 19 inches long. She is amazingly good. Hopefully it stays that way...but no matter what...she is the cutest little girl I have ever seen.

Here tiny little self is so small that it fits in the palm of my hand. In fact...if you go to http://babycentral.centralbap.com/default.asp?group=41358 you can see the picture that Central Baptist posted online. She is sitting in my hand and it really shows how tiny she really is. Notice the hair on her shoulder and back. She has a lot of hair. It is really cute. Mommy had hair like that when she was born so it is only right that Magdalene has that too. It is their special bond. As for her head...you can see that she has a lot of hair up there. In fact, a pastor who came to visit us in the hospital said that he was very jealous of her. He is not so fortunate in the area of hair up there.

Melissa did it all with no drugs. She went completely natural. She is my hero. As I watched her go through it all, I knew that she would make it without drugs but I never thought she would do it with flying colors like she did. She is stronger than I could ever be. I know that labor can be tough...and extremely exhausting but she made it look so easy. She was made for this.

Anyway...our lives have changed dramatically for the better and we couldn't be more excited. God has truly blessed us and I pray that she will be a blessing to Him as she grows up to become a better disciple of Christ than we are.

I have to say...when all was said and done, God did quite a number on my humility level. When you see your child born and hold her the first time...your priorities get in line if they weren't before and you feel the love of God in a whole new way. In a way that you just can't describe. She is truly a gift from God. Thanks be to God!




Thank you to all who were praying for us and thinking about us. Hope to see you all soon.


This is awesome...for the first time I get to sign off by saying..."So long from Tony, Melissa, and Magdalene!" That feels nice.