Monday, April 15, 2019 - 12:40 pm
Paige gave birth to Juniper Elise Van Voorst
9 lbs. 2 oz, 20 3/4"
happy... healthy.
Juniper
In 1 King 18, we see Elijah at a high water mark: he confronts Ahab's idolatry and proposes a thunderdome-style "two gods enter, one God leaves" battle upon Mt. Carmel. The one true God, the God of Israel, Yahweh, shows up in a mighty way and drenches Elijah's water-soaked sacrifice with fire, licking up every last drop of condensation. The people who gathered to observe the duel were persuaded to repent and return to worshiping Yahweh alone. Thus, they turned away from Baal and executed his prophets. Jezebel, hearing that her priests and prophets had been exterminated, issued a death warrant for Elijah.
The triumphant prophet fled her presence and ran to the desert. After 3 years of drought, most places were more deserty than usual, but he found a juniper tree, still alive and thriving, and took residence beneath it. The juniper tree was a sign of life in a land full of death. Elijah felt alone and exhausted, yet he found respite under the shade of the juniper tree. There God gave him rest. He provided food for the disenchanted prophet. He nursed him back to health and set him back on his way.
1 Kings 19:4-8 (KJV)
But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee. And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
The juniper tree endured 3 years of drought by God's grace. The juniper provided a place for God's prophet to take comfort in a particularly difficult season of his life. The mighty man of God needed help and the juniper provided it. Even the best of men break down and require a place to recover from the toil their mighty deeds require of them.
The Juniper tree is a symbol of feminine virtue and strength: able to endure difficult days by God's grace, beautifully adorned with evergreen in a world full of tan, a place of respite from the woes of this world, nourishment and care in the form of a soft place to nap and a comforting meal to replenish. As women of God are safe havens for sound doctrine and soft places for those fighting hard battles, so is the Juniper tree and so may my daughter be by the grace of God who sustains her.
The evergreen is also reminiscent of Boniface who in Elijah-like fashion engaged in the prophetic theater of challenging foreign gods and felled Thor's oak in broad daylight. He also prevented a ritual sacrifice by interceding between the slayer and the human sacrifice. He then sent the onlookers home with branches off a nearby evergreen as a reminder that Christ is our tree of life and our ultimate sacrifice who died on a tree. This is the origin, some say, of modern day Christmas trees and wreaths. May my daughter always keep the spirit of Christian conquest and Christmas in which the evergreen reminds us of life everlasting and the end of idolatry.
My desire is that my daughter would be a genuine help to mighty men of God. That she would be upheld by God and given the high privilege of coming along His work and aiding His saints in their valiant efforts and finding her efforts memorialized along with theirs and inextricably part of their story.
At her 20 week ultrasound, the medical staff indicated that they had observed signs of a potential chromosomal disorder: short limbs, nuchal fold, etc... They also indicated that they were seeing inter-uterine growth restriction as the baby was measuring small for her gestational age. They ran a blood test which could detect the most common chromosomal abnormalities and said the results would be relayed in 5-7 days. As we waited, I fasted during day light hours, praying that God would heal my daughter. I prayed that the results of the blood test would be accurate and that they would show a healthy baby. I prayed that a follow up ultrasound would show that all of the signs observed at the first go around would have evaporated like Elijah's water-soaked sacrifice and that her growth would be within normal ranges.
At the end of 7 days, we were told good news: no chromosomal abnormalities were present! At her follow up ultrasound, her measurements were all on track: no indications of chromosomal disorders were seen and her growth was back in normal, expected range!!!
Either the medical staff were mistaken the first time around or God supernaturally reconfigured my daughter's DNA. I prayed for the second. God is the Potter and all clay is His clay. He cab redirect the dance of any atom. After all, they are His atoms and they dance for Him.
One verse came to mind one morning during this time of walking and fasting and waiting...
Jeremiah 18:1-4
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words." 3 So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
God can rework spoiled vessels. Whether Juniper's DNA was scrambled and He unscrambled it or whether the medical staff were mistaken, my prayers were answered and our daughter was born happy and healthy and larger than most babies... not smaller. God turned everything on its head and past fears were consumed by present abundance.
The Juniper tree defied the odds. In a land being devoured by drought, the juniper tree thrived. In a world where everyone looking around was saying, "Nothing can survive," the juniper tree thrived. So it is with my daughter. The world looked in and offered their prophecies, but God, in His mercy, devoured their predictions with His provision.
Juniper is also a botanical reference and has come to be synonymous with both youth and chastity due to it being evergreen. It retains life and livelihood even under extreme circumstances. In the days of Elijah, nothing much grew, but the juniper tree endured and flourished enough not only to be present, but alive enough to shade anything else living underneath.
The Juniper tree's name is derived from the Latin word juniperus. In Latin, juniperus is combination of the word junio, which means young, and parere, to produce, hence youth producing, or "evergreen." Because of this evergreen quality, it is linked to youthfulness and vitality which in turns yokes it to chastity (eternal youthfulness) and childlikeness. My prayer is that my daughter would mature in Christ every day in every way: in wisdom, stature and favor with God and others. But I pray she always retains the childlike faith and way which the Lord commends and requires of us as adults. This is a dominant theme of Jesus' teaching anchored in the reality of growing mature without taking yourself too seriously, taking God more seriously every day in every way without becoming self-satisfied.
Matthew 18:3
And said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."
Luke 18:17
"Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."
Matthew 19:14
But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Mark 10:13-16
And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.
Matthew 21:16
And they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
Matthew 18:1-14
At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me
Elise
My grandmother, Esther Louise Harvey, was born on April 19, 1919. The name Elise is, in part, an homage paid to the family line on my mother's side from which I came forth. Elise borrows from the essence of her name "Esther LouISE = ELISE."
The name Elise means "devoted to God" as a shortened version of the Hebrew, "Elizabeth." Elizabeth was the wife of Zechariah and the mother of John the Baptist. She provided shelter and comfort to the growing prophet as a baby who took up residence under the canopy of her person and as a young boy under the roof of her home. She nourished him, fed him, disciplined him, and prepared him for the good work God would lead him to as a grown man. John the Baptist was a man among boys because he had a mom among women.
My prayer is that my daughter would be a comforter of prophets and a helper to mighty men of God. I pray she would be resilient in difficult times like the juniper tree and a place of comfort and rest and rejuvenation in the presence of God for all who God sends her way. I pray that she would be the kind of woman like Elizabeth who would mother the kind of man John the Baptist turned out to be. I pray she would marry well like Elizabeth and receive her strength from God's faithful provision like the juniper.
May she be given the privilege of seeing miracles in her midst and prophets in her presence.
A Connection Between the Two
John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah according to Jesus (Matthew 11:14). The two men of God both faithfully fought with idolatry and boldly shouted it down in favor of following the one true God. The two men also both experienced difficulties and periods of drought. The two men also had moments of weakness and doubt where all their courage and dependability required assurance. These two men were larger than life in many ways, but they were still men in every way. The spirit behind Juniper Elise acknowledges that great things can be accomplished for God in unremarkable ways: a shaded place, a good meal, a good nap, a warm womb, a godly home. These epitomize the essence of feminine strength and sensibility. They are necessary and provide the ability for good men to go on fighting and to have something worthy back at home for which to fight. What some may be quick to dismiss as a mere backdrop, God acknowledges as sheer backbone. The women and children are the building blocks of His Christian civilization. Men should feel the pressure of the women as the treasure.
Juniper Elise
I love you little lady! I like being your dad. I love having you in our lives. You are loved and precious and I promise to do everything in my power to serve you, provide for you, and protect you so that may come to know God as your Helper, Provider and Protector. I am so excited to introduce you to your brothers and sisters. I can't wait to get to know you as you grow in wisdom, stature and favor in the eyes of God and men.
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