A Message From Above

I think my wife said this best:

"Last Friday afternoon, October 10th I was sitting on the balcony of the condo, working very hard at shortening a closet rod with a hacksaw. In the middle of my task I notice a young, black man standing by the fence that separates the condo property from the patio homes. His position pretty much put him directly across from me, one story down. He was wearing baggy pants, a white hooded sweatshirt with some sort of colorful design on it (hood up) and he had a pair of ear phones dangling from his neck. In other words, he looked very much like any other black youth you would happen upon in this neighborhood.

“Six pounds, fifteen ounces,” he said to me.

I must have given him a puzzled look because he repeated, “Your baby, six pounds fifteen ounces.”

“That’s what I thought you meant.” I replied.

And that was the end of our exchange.

Now you have to understand that I had been a bit anxious about the size of the child I carry within in me because just two days before at my weekly appointment the doctor said that she though the baby was kind of big. Being that I am planning on a natural childbirth without drugs the prospect of a big baby did not thrill me. After all, I have to push him out and the bigger he is the harder it’s going to be. And if he’s too big, there would exist the possibility of a C-section; the added cost and recovery time for which would be a challenge for me to come up with.

So to have a complete stranger, and a guy no less, take a guess at how big my baby is was a bit puzzling and most certainly made me take notice. Was this some guy just passing buy who thought it would be amusing to take a guess or could it possibly be a divine message? Both Nathan and I pondered this for quite some time.

Fast forward to today. Since the doctor had some question about the size and position of my baby, she ordered up an ultra sound for me just so we could make sure that everything is how it should be. During the session, the technician explained that she was taking measurements of his head, feemer bone, and stomach, which in turn would be plugged into a formula that would estimate his size. When she had done the math, she told us that he was close to seven pounds. Nathan, the ever diligent question asker, asked if she could provide an exact weight. After doing a conversion from grams to pounds, the technician replied, “Six pounds, fifteen ounces.”

Nathan and I exchanged knowing looks of wonderment and surprise. What are the chances that my baby’s weight would be exactly the same as the stranger’s guess? Pretty slim if you ask me. There is no doubt in our minds that his message was one from God, sent perhaps to comfort me and put me at ease. Whether he was an angel or a prophet is still a matter for debate, (I personally lean towards angel simply because that was my initial thought when the encounter happened) but the divine errand of that man can not be denied.

This is not the first time God has had something to say about my little baby boy. Almost two weeks ago while worshiping on Sunday morning He assured me that He would be with me as I gave birth. That alone made me cry simply because I felt so loved by my Heavenly Father. And if I were to go into all the ways that He has already provided for my baby this journal would be many pages long.

Something special is up with my little boy and I am not sure what it is. All I know is that it seems as if God has taken a very keen interest in the child within me and all I can assume is that He has extraordinary plans for my baby. I relate very strongly with Mary, the mother of Jesus, these days for she too had her baby’s needs provided for (gifts from the wise men), a sense that God was with her in her pregnancy, and yes, even a visit from an angel. I don’t for a moment believe that my little baby will save the world, but I’m pretty sure that God has something very special planned just for him."