Finding a Voice

On Friday afternoon I learned that in the week before Steven Curtis Chapman’s 5-year-old daughter, Maria Sue, was run over in their own driveway and died later at a hospital. Maria Sue was the Chapmans’ sixth child and third adopted daughter from China. http://www.stevencurtischapman.com/

All that evening and the next day I grieved for them, especially knowing that it was their teenage son was the one who didn’t see her when backing up an SUV. I pulled out SCC’s Declaration CD and claimed the very songs Steven himself had written – “God is God and I am not,” “Bring it on, let the lighting flash, let the thunder role,” and more – asking the Lord to protect the family from despair and bitterness, asking God to be more real to the family than ever, asking him to make these songs even more meaningful now than when Steven first wrote them.

I was certainly not the only person praying for them and I won’t be the last. And look at some of the fruit it is bearing already in the media – alongside divorces, splits, catfights, and MTV awards:

The initial announcement in People: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20201819,00.html?xid=rss-fullcontent

And a report on the funeral: “The family raised their arms as they sang songs of worship and sought comfort in their faith. ‘We had talked [with Maria] about what it meant to be with Jesus,’ Chapman said. ‘I had no idea how soon it was going to be, but we know she is in His amazing house, playing in the water.’” http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20202406,00.html?xid=rss-fullcontent

God be with the Chapman family. Shine your light in and from their lives.

Amen.