the priest

the priest.

A pair of chuncky, soft legs danggled between a mothers set of strong hands. Carefully, the baby was laid onto the unknown alter of a hospital bed. A sacrifice had been made.

Laughter was soon permeating the room like a potent, burning incence. A nine month old boy was smiling and rolling around the bed ignorant of the grace that was about to be poured onto his life. He had been chosen.

Samuel, a child of God, was born with a cleft lip and palate. Anointed at birth with shame by gaping hole in the center of his face, it seemed he was destined for a life of rejection. But Samuel has a loving mother. A mother who was willing to place her babies life in the hands of a man she didn't know. She trusted God with his life.

24 hours later Samuel's laughter morphed into tears. His life had been consecrated by instruments of healing, which had cut deep and left him in tremendous pain. His face was well girded by thick, plastic strips which supported his newly formed face. Forcefully raising his arms in protest, his mother gently wrapped him in a white sheet and pressed him against her chest.

She had dream for the baby she held. Perhaps he would speaks before kings. Perhaps he would fight corruption. Perhaps he would free the oppressed. Perhaps he would hear the voice of God.

His newly formed lip and palate will forever serve as a memorial of remebrance that his life has been marked by God.

Perhaps he will use his new lips to tell the world of what God has done for him.