A Brother’s Prayer

 

We celebrated “Tractor Boy’s” birthday this week.  Named Joshua David at birth, my self-proclaimed farmer marked his special day with-you guessed it- a green tractor cake and plenty of gifts that bore the same color.  As the school kids were shoveling down breakfast on Joshua’s birthday morning, I looked at the clock and realized that three years ago they had been standing wide-eyed in the hospital room meeting their new baby brother. Born  in the pre-dawn hours of December fifteen, an unexpected two weeks early, Joshua was the best early Christmas present we’d ever been gifted. Since I had relived the memory of my fourth born’s birth before the house awoke, I wanted to elicit a little sibling nostalgia before the kids all raced off to school. So I asked my breakfast-eaters if they remembered what they had been doing three years prior.

 

 Luke looked at the clock and a big grin lit up his handsome eleven-year-old face. “I remember,” he said with a sudden seriousness. “It was one of the BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE!” And then, my eldest son recounted the sheer thrill of the memory. “I’ll never forget when Dad woke me up that morning and asked, “Luke, would you like to go meet your new baby BROTHER?”  I’ve often wished I could have been a fly on the wall and witnessed that precious conversation between father and son. You see, the arrival of Joshua David was an answer to years of prayers uttered from the lips of a persistent young boy.  Over and over again as babies grew inside of me, Luke prayed constantly that the expected sibling would be a brother. Twice over, our firstborn welcomed sisters, and, to his credit, he welcomed each one with joy. Yet that wish for a little brother remained. Little did we know when Joshua entered the world that he was the answer to not just to Luke’s many  prayers; but to many of ours as well. For in those years when Lukas stormed the throne of God with his personal plea, we, too, were casting our own pleas heavenward on behalf of our eldest. A strong spirited and stubborn personality from the start, Luke often seemed to tout a hard heart. While his strong personality had some definite benefits when it came to perseverance and “worldly achievement,” Luke’s strong will seemed dilute his sense of compassion and kindness at times.  What would soften his spirit? we often wondered as we watched our firstborn grow into a young boy who lacked a sense of mercy. Many nights Rob and I snuck into our son’s bedroom as he slept and placed our hands on his heart and begged the Lord to give Luke a soft and teachable spirit so that he could grow into a man someday who reflected the heart of his Savior.

So on the morning of December 15, 2006, when God chose to answer Luke’s prayer with the gift of a baby brother eight years his junior, we got a small glimpse of the way God would use Joshua to answer our prayers as well. I’ll never forget that moment in the tiny hospital room when Luke first laid his eyes upon his new little brother. Speechless, he touched the tiny toes and offered his finger to the tiny hands. As Joshua’s two-hour-old fingers clasped Luke’s, my eldest’s eyes began to sparkle and he whispered, “Hello, little buddy. I’m your big brother.” Hardly able to tear himself away, Luke relented when Rob reminded him that a school day lay ahead.  Later, Luke’s second grade teacher shared that he had carried with him all day a picture of his new baby brother that the hospital nurses had quickly printed and sent to school for “show and tell.” Amazingly, Luke’s delight in his “answered prayer” has not waned over the years. The two can often be found playing ball, chase, tackle or a host of other “games” unique to brother play.  And the patience, tenderness and mercy that Rob and I begged the Lord to develop in our firstborn sprouted first in his relationship with his baby brother and now spills over into many other relationships in Luke’s life.