I believe that God heard my prayers for this child and granted my request. For that reason, we chose David's middle name, Samuel. Hannah prayed for a child, God granted her request, and she named him Samuel, which means "God has heard", and also, "God's heart".
I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life, he will be given over to the Lord. - 1 Samuel 1:27
God heard our prayers, and hears our prayers now. And I believe He WILL hear our prayers and grant our requests for a successful surgery, and for David's life to be a testament to God's grace and power!
So we knew when we chose David's middle name that it had special meaning, but we didn't realize when we chose his first name how meaningful it would become as well. The main reason we chose the name David because we like strong, biblical names for boys, and because it is a family name on all sides: it is my mom's grandpa's and Bryan's grandpa's name, as well as my dad and his dad's middle name. But as I was journaling and praying over David recently, God brought to mind some passages that made me realize He had so much more meaning behind the name than we realized when we chose it. (And that maybe we weren't the ones who had chosen it after all!)
David prayed in Psalm 86, verse 11:
Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.
Very literally, our David already has an undivided heart. One of the marks of his defect is a hole in the dividing wall between the ventricles. That division will be repaired, but it is our prayer that as David grows to be the man God designed him to be, he would have the kind of undivided heart that David of the Bible prayed for: one that sought fully after God and followed in His ways. We pray that he would be one who might be called a man after God's own heart, just as King David was.
"I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do." - Acts 13:22
As I continued to pray, another passage came to mind. When I was in elementary and middle school, I made several trips to summer Bible camp. One summer, the goal was to memorize Psalm 139. I did it, and I can still recite (almost all of) it to this day. I know, I know, impressive. ;) I just wish I could say this for more passages of scripture! But verses 13-16 came to mind:
For you created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Wow. Of all the times I have read or recited that passage, it never hit me as hard as it did that time. God knit David together--and he is wonderfully made. When David's heart formed and didn't quite form the way it should have, he was NOT hidden from God. It did not go unnoticed. God was there, He knows, and He already knew ALL of David's story and how He would use his heart and his life to His glory! I do not think God caused David's heart defect--we just live in an imperfect world--but I KNOW that He will redeem it and he will use it.
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord. "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future." - Jeremiah 29:11
(I even have a song for this one from summer camp...too bad you can't hear me singing it right now! :))
If I have learned anything on my journey as a parent so far, it is that I can do nothing on my own. Everything good comes from God, and anything good or worthwhile in me is from Him, and due to no merit of my own. It has been a gradual process of God stripping away my pride and refining me, ever since I became a mother almost five years ago. I know that this next chapter of our story will bring beautiful things out of our lives, as we trust God and His strength in moving forward and He continues to draw us to Him. So finally, I'll share Hannah's prayer from 1 Samuel 2:1-4, after she had dedicated her son's life to the Lord:
My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in Your deliverance. There is no one Holy like the Lord; there is no one besides You. There is no rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the Lord is God who knows, and by Him deeds are weighed. The bows of the warrior are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength.
