Many have asked how did we decide on the name Selah. The word Selah is found in the book of Psalms and Habakkuk in the Bible. Most scholars understand the word to mean to "pause and reflect,"and/or "praise and lift up." It is also understood to be serve as a pause or break in music. This may have been when the musicians stopped to breathe, sing acapella, stopped to praise God or maybe even took a moment to lift their hands in praise.
Selah's pregnancy created lots of opportunity to pause, reflect, trust and lift our hands in praise to God. At the beginning of my pregnancy, the doctors told us that maybe she was an ectopic pregnancy and that maybe there was one baby in my uterus and one outside. I had multiple ultrasounds to solidify that there was in fact one baby and she was in my uterus. As you can imagine, we were so relieved to hear that she was growing healthy and gave us an opportunity to "praise and lift up" worship to God.
Of course then there was the whole medical evacuation where I was told I had placenta previa. It is still a mystery as to what happened. Did God miraculously heal me? Was I misdiagnosed? Yet again, another opportunity to "pause and reflect" on God's goodness and sovereignty, and praise Him for bringing us all to the States for the rest of my prenatal care and delivery.
When we found out we were expecting sweet Selah, Bjorn and I both excited and nervous. We were thrilled to think that God would entrust us with this precious gift, but also honestly nervous with having faced so many previous health challenges in our family. We were both encouraged when her pregnancy made us stop to "pause and reflect" on all that God had done and accomplished in our family. We were encouraged to think about how He alone has sustained us through many trials. Since coming to the mission field and becoming parents, we have quite a pile of Ebenezer stones, where we are reminded of how God has helped us and proved Himself faithful and worthy of our trust. We know that being a follower of Jesus does not excuse us from pain, disappointment, sickness, or trials...BUT, we can be confident that we WILL NOT have to face the struggles alone.
So...we can be confident that as we trek this new path of being parents to sweet Selah, God will walk with us and when the hard times come...which we know they will...we can trust Him and rest in His sovereignty.
Becoming a parent has increased our "Faith" as we continue to walk with Him and trust him for our future. We have witnessed many miracles in the lives of our children that have increased our faith.
Thank you Heavenly Father for blessing us with our sweet Selah Faith. May she grow up to know you and put her trust in you. As she grows, may she hunger to know your Word and learn to rest in your great love and grace.
And that my friends, is the story behind how we picked our baby girls name, Selah Faith...
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