KINGDOM TAPESTRY - Part 4

I had thought I was through with this series, but I read a statement yesterday that was SO much a part of the whole idea of Kingdom Tapestry that I just had to share it!

First a little background....


It's not a sight any parent is prepared for, their child in a hospital bed with a trachea tube in their neck, but Jon and Kari Underwood say it's far better than what they could be dealing with.

"I wouldn't like a scar on my children, but we'll take this scar," said Kari Underwood.

Wednesday night two and a half year old William Underwood fell in the nursery at Bellevue Baptist, hit his neck on a piece of furniture and broke his wind pipe.The woman watching him knew something was wrong and took him to another nursery worker who immediately jumped into action."Within 30 seconds of falling his breathing was in distress," said Penny Williams.

Without even thinking about it, Penny Williams told someone to call 911, kicked off her shoes and ran with William to a first aid station. By then he had already stopped breathing."We put oxygen on him and tried to contact his parents," said Williams.

Penny, who wasn't even suppose to be in the nursery that night, also sang to William and rode with him in the ambulance to Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center.

"I have daughter with medical problems. She has some of the best surgeons (at Le Bonheur) and on the way I was just praying the right doctor would be here and when we got here it was Dr. McDonald and when I saw him I knew he was okay," said Williams.

William had to be rushed into emergency surgery to repair his trachea. His parents had no idea how serious the situation had been until the surgery was over, but say the outcome couldn't have been better.

"I didn't know Penny's story that she had a child here, I didn't know she knew what she did, but God did and he put her in that hallway," said Kari Underwood."One thing that became clear to me is the minutes counted. If there had been any delay we could have had a completely different outcome," said Jon Underwood. (copied from WREG.COM)


I saw this story on the news on Thursday. I was thrilled that this little boy's life had been saved and just as thrilled that all of this was allowed to be told on the 5:00 news! (Hats off to WREG in Memphis...God bless you!!) How often do we get to hear God given the glory for anything in the media these days, but HE was all over this story.

Yesterday while on FACEBOOK, I saw an entry by Kari Underwood, William's mother. One paragraph just jumped off the page to me,


"God uniquely prepares us for events in our lives that we don't see coming. One question Christian detractors often ask is, "Why do bad things happen to good people?" We may never get the whole answer to that question until we meet again in Heaven, but I can give you a tiny piece of the answer right now. Penny [the nursery worker who ran with William] did not know 18 years ago when her daughter was born needing multiple surgeries, that one day she would be at the right place at the right time and know just what to do when William was injured. She didn't know. But God gave her the grace to handle that experience at that time, and the preparation for my child's distress and my own subsequent measure of grace. She learned empathy through that experience. It changed her life. This will change mine. Picture the butterfly making its way through much effort out of its cocoon. Or imagine the chick breaking its way through the egg. Science will show that the effort is part of the process; without the trial during transformation, these creatures can fail to thrive and develop. As His creatures, God uses our trials to develop us and help us to become better people.

God wove the threads of Penny and Kari and William's lives together over a number of years to suddenly intertwine on Wednesday night. It was no accident. It was not a coincidence. It was all part of God's Kingdom plan.

As I read from JESUS CALLING by Sarah Young this morning, she echoed those thoughts,

"Come to Me with your plans held in abeyance. Worship Me in spirit and in truth, allowing My Glory to permeate your entire being. Trust Me enough to let Me guide you through this day, accomplishing My purposes in My timing. Subordinate your myriad of plans to My Master Plan. I am sovereign over every aspect of your life! "(May 18)

"I am your Lord! Seek Me as Friend and Lover of your soul, but remember that I am also King of kings---sovereign over all. You can make some plans as you gaze into the day that stretches out before you. But you need to hold those plans tentatively, anticipating that I may have other ideas. " (May 16)

"Oh Father...today I pray that you will order my steps in YOUR way. I recognize that you are weaving the threads of my life into a pattern that I may not be able to see. But help me to trust you...to yield my will and my way to You. Help me to submit my plans and my TO DO list to you today and allow you to orchestrate my day as You see fit. Help me not to turn to the left or the right, but to follow Your steps where You desire me to go. Put the words in my mouth that You want me to say. Help me to give encouragement and comfort where needed; to lavish grace with patience and kindness when my flesh would rather be otherwise. Help me to turn a deaf ear to the whispers of Satan who desires to steer me off course and to distract me from Your way. You, O Lord, are the Master Designer. Make something beautiful out of my life....in Jesus' name I pray. Amen"