Song of Songs 8:6

A hemoglobin count measures the number of hemoglobin proteins in your blood that carry oxygen. Normally, a hemoglobin count of 6 means death. On Sunday night when we arrived at the ER, Nathaniel's was 3.9.

His body temperature was 90 degrees.

The doctors told us that bascially he had bled out so much that the only parts of his body that had oxygenated blood were his brain, his lungs and his heart.

When I was a priest, I was with people when they died. I know what death looks like. When Lesley came and got me on Sunday night and asked me to look at Nathaniel, I knew he was dying. I knew it with as much conviction as I know that I'm sitting here typing this. I honestly believed he would not survive the ride the 5 miles from our house to the emergency room.

We called Lesley's parents to come and watch our children, and Lesley began to prepare things to take to the hospital. While she was doing that, I took Nathaniel into the bathroom, and I baptized him. When I came out, I gave him to his mother to hold him.

Lesley's parents arrived. As we were getting into the car, Lesley asked if she should put him in his car seat. I said, "No, you hold him." She held him all the way to the hospital.

In my heart, I know that is what is saved his life.

Song of Songs 8:6

Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.

There is a bond that exists between a mother and her child, a love that grows between them and within them just as real as the body that grows in the mother's womb. This bond of love is strong as death, relentless as the netherworld.

I think Lesley, by holding her son, kept his soul in this world.

The love that a mother and her child have for each other is a spiritual reality. It cannot be comprehended cognitively. It cannot be touched or understood empirically. It can't even be felt emotionally. It is a spiritual reality, too deep for our feeble human senses to comphrehend.

I believe that Nathaniel could see the Angel of Death beckoning him on Sunday night. I also believe that between them was a force, stern as death, just as powerful, that kept Nathaniel from heeding that call, Lesley's love for him and his for her.

My son is alive because of his mother's love.