Our Angel Harold and His Invisible Wings

by Joe and Sarah

Before we journey any farther through the story of Luke's birthday, we wanted to take a moment to introduce you to some amazing people God used to help us that day.  God wove their gifts, talents and presence into our story with Luke in such beautiful, unique and incredible ways that we feel they deserve more than just a passing mention in Luke's story.

The first person we want to introduce you to is our dear friend, Harold Eastman.  It is difficult to know how to begin telling you about him, as the history he shares with both of us dates back years and weighs so significantly into who we both are today.  Some logistical information about Harold is that he is a pastor on staff at our church and serves in many ways, but primarily as the Pastor over Heartland's single's ministry.  He is married to our beautiful friend, Janine, and they share an amazing daughter, Kaya, who is three.

Harold has been and remains a dear friend to both Joe and myself.  Joe and I met Harold separately before we even knew each other and were both Harold's friend as individuals before he became "our" friend.  (Ironically, we were both at his wedding when he married Janine, but did not even know each other then!)  Harold has a fantastic sense of humor and an easy laugh.  He is fun to be around and is always quick to listen.  He is a steady, solid man of integrity and has a truly sensitive heart wired for prayer.  He selflessly shares his time and his wealth of talents with his friends, family and strangers alike and we count ourselves fortunate to call him our friend. Through our years of friendship, he has been a mentor, a friend, a confidante, a servant, a pastor, an encourager, a challenger, a matchmaker and on Luke's birthday was our chosen Minister of Peace.

While "Minister of Peace" is a made up title that we bestowed on Harold for Luke's birthday, Harold was precisely that for us.  It is impossible to list everything he did for us and for Luke that day not only because it was so much, but also because we are honestly still continuing to learn more and more about how he was caring for us in ways beyond what we could see with our eyes.  However, that being said, we at least want to attempt to provide a glimpse of a few of the ways Harold has been and was caring for our family both leading up to and on Luke's birthday.

Harold was there with us at the very beginning of our little family as he prayed over us during our wedding ceremony last February- certainly one of our happiest days.  (One of the distinctive elements of that wedding prayer was for our future family- specifically for our children!)  Harold was the pastor who baptized the three of us back in August when Joe and I rededicated our lives to following Jesus.  We cherished that Luke was with us and that we did this together as a family of three.  You can read about that experience here. Exactly one week after our baptism, Harold and Janine opened their home for a prayer circle for Joe and I after we learned of Luke's fatal diagnosis- the beginning of our most difficult season.

This prayer circle was a time where Joe and I were surrounded by several close friends as we all cried out to God, held each other close and surrendered ourselves and our sweet baby to God's sovereignty.  It was powerful to be loved and surrounded in that way when the mountains in our world were shaking and the seas were only beginning to roll.  Throughout our season leading up to Luke's birthday, Harold and Janine continued to pour into our family with consistent, intentional conversations, faithful friendship, encouragement, prayer and love. 

When Joe and I were creating our birth plan for Luke's birthday, we were very specific about the roll we wanted Harold to play.  We knew we wanted him present with us in the room for prayer over us as a couple, as a family and specifically over our sweet Luke.  We also wanted him to be our "bouncer" of sorts and we  asked Harold to act on our behalf as our gatekeeper to the outside world that day.  He communicated our needs to our friends, family, hospital staff and to all of the additional people involved with our family that day.  We relied upon him to be our voice and our keeper of peace during our precious moments with Luke.

Like I mentioned earlier, Harold has a great sense of humor and he showed up to the hospital on Luke's birthday sporting this fantastic gold chain. While Harold is not a gold-chain-wearing type of guy, he knew this "fashionable look" would bring smiles to both Joe's and my faces, so he wore it for us.  He wanted us to smile on our toughest day.  Later he called it his "pastor collar" and even later in the day, it was tucked back inside his shirt...hidden but not forgotten. We are so grateful for the seeming impossible smiles he brought for us that day.  Here is what our true friend looked like when he arrived to stand beside us during our most difficult day...what a gift!

So getting back to some of the many ways that Harold cared for our family that day: arrived early to be with us as I was prepped in our room, prayed with us and for Luke, kept our parents and surprise prayer warriors informed of what was happening and who needed to be where and when, provided back rubs, kept various "helpful" hospital staff out of our room during our time with Luke, made us smile through our tears, recorded Luke's tender cries for us, took photos of the goings-on in our room, helped tremendously with tasks that needed to be done so that we could both be focused on Luke the entire time he was with us, taught us how to swaddle our sweet baby, cried with us, prayed over our family, brought Joe food throughout the day, transported our stuff from our car to our room, tenderly honored our need for privacy while balancing our need for his presence, loved Luke, spoke into Luke's heart, was extremely sensitive to our high levels of emotion and lovingly carried our son away from us and out of our room at the end of the day.  God loved us all through Harold that day.  Harold gave our family everything he had to give and we remain forever grateful.

The day following Luke's birthday, Harold became ill and was very sick.  However, he did not allow his illness to prevent him from reading at Luke's Honoration service later in the week or from staying with us at Luke's service until the very last person had left.  Even though it was four degrees outside, he and Janine then helped us gather our things and load up our car and also helped us transport several items back to our house.  Harold continued to feel sick and several days later was admitted to the hospital for a week long stay in order to recover!

Throughout this difficult season and especially on Luke's birthday, Harold continually poured out into our lives everything he had to give.  Shelley Winkler, Harold's boss, described him best when she said,  "He was broken bread and poured out wine yesterday.  A vessel filled to overflowing of the Lord's spirit of anchoring strength and deep tenderness."  Absolutely true and we could not agree more.  In the days following Luke's birthday, we received numerous compliments on Harold's work and presence with us that day...from nurses, doctors, various hospital staff and family members...all compliments that were extremely well deserved. 

Harold, we thank you and will always remember the way you loved and cared for our little family that amazing day and throughout this difficult and often dark season in our lives.  We cherish that you are such an important part of Luke's life.