Sunday 27 January 2013

Neonatal Death: Call the Midwife

Tonight's episode of 'Call the Midwife' dealt with the issue of neonatal death; an issue that once it has visited a family never really goes away.

I was doing so well today and then this blinking programme turned up and as the story unfolded I found myself with tears running down my face and myself taken back to the very first time I fund myself in a room with a Mum, easing her to a place where we could pray and ease the child towards the waiting female member of the undertaker's staff.

I have to be honest and say that there are timers when the blessed resonances that all pastoral encounters leave behind not only ground you but also give you exquisitely painful insights into God's love for His child and the pain that separation, for our sake, brought Him.

There will be many for whom the pain is revisited as the wounds of loss are re-examined and made real once again. For those who find tonight's episode may they find healing, wholeness and restoration.

For those who have gone:  May God grant them eternal rest (dona eis requiem).

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