IT IS WELL

And he shall be called…

My mom told Dad how she was feeling and the changes in her body. The expected had happened, she would be having a baby and that was great news.
Every woman goes to the hospital to carry out a scan to know the sex of the baby but it wasn’t so in the case of Mrs Odeyinka. Her husband, Mr Odeyinka, my father, was her Doctor and his message was her scan report.
“Do not bother yourself going for a scan, the Lord has revealed to me that the child you carry is a boy. And he shall be called JOSHUA because he is a child of promise” he had told her and she believed, not because she just wanted to obey her husband but because Mr Odeyinka was a man of God.

The Arrival of Baby Joshua

On a very beautiful morning of December 14th of the mid 1990’s. My mum had risen from the bed like every normal day with her protruded belly and high anticipation as to when the being inside of her will be out to finally be in her arms.
Like the physicists rightly explained, everything remains normal till there is an applied force. The force that changed the normal for Mrs Odeyinka came strongly from within her and she knew her expectation was finally coming to play.
She found her way to the hospital and onto the delivery bed. After great push and unrelenting efforts, out came Baby Joshua as innocent and fragile as every newborn. The great Joy she felt and the incomparable love she automatically had for her child was beyond comprehension.

Sick again???

It’s been about six months after birth and Baby Joshua was still not comfortable with his new environment. He was unstable in health and cried almost all the time.
In and out of the hospital on at least bi-weekly basis and my confused parents needed an understanding of why their promise baby won’t stop getting sick.
A test was finally carried out to ease their confused minds. Then, was the message clear, that the child of Promise had a terrible health challenge.
My parents got the test results that I had a very critical blood disorder, Sickle cell anaemia, with the SS genotype.
Every parent wanted a child but none wishes for one who will bring problems in the stead of promise fulfilment.

Tomorrow isn’t promised

All I knew was that I fell sick always and consumed drugs like it was a class of food. I knew little about what great effect it had on the financial status of the family.
Until a day, a friend visited my Dad and I overheard them having a discussion about an offer to get a land and start building a house. The response my dad gave was a surprise to me. “I have a building project going on already, my sons are my building projects” he had said, referring to my younger brother and I.
The conversation continued and this man bluntly told my dad to stop wasting his money on a child that didn’t have a sure tomorrow. “Why waste money on a child who you know too well, that his life can end tomorrow and there’ll be nothing to gain” he had said.
My heart was broken at this but that didn’t compare to the pain I felt on a day we were cleaning the house and I came across the so many containers of drugs I had used till then. Each of those drugs were purchased at very high price and I had used so many as at that time. I understood how my health was really eating up the family finance and how my Dad could really build a house if they stopped spending his money on me.
But they never stopped.

My only friend

I grew up as an overly careful child, obeying many rules and living a life of so many restrictions.
Having friends was never the way for me as I couldn’t do all my mates could do. Every rule broken equalled days of all round pains and nights of extreme torment and myself wishing for death to come end it all.
I went to school but I had regular record of absenteeism and wouldn’t have been able to attain the great level of smartness in school but for the relentless assistance of my only friend, my mum.
Mrs Odeyinka was a teacher and she went all the way to ensure her son wasn’t lagging behind. And didn’t stop there, but also ensured he was leading the class even with his failing health.

The way I should go

Having a man of God as one’s father is a blessing that isn’t recognized until later.
Daily morning devotion was a must and special devotion on Saturdays went on for hours. My brother and I complained and grumbled about these but Dad will always say that we won’t realize the importance of what he’s depositing in us then but we will understand better in future.

I was sick but I was growing. I had grown into a teenager and I wanted freedom too and I wanted to enjoy the teenage life. I tried moving with the bad guys in my class and I was beginning to enjoy it till a day, we got ourselves in trouble and were to be punished.

A teacher saw me and expressed her surprise and asked “Joshua, even you?”

This question brought to my understanding that a lot was expected from me than unnecessary jokes and troubles and I left that group of friends.

It wasn’t enough to have changed my friends or have decided to live a moral life. The real change came when I gave my life to Christ and decided to have a personal walk with him. This happened when I was about 14years old on one of the days I followed my dad for a ministration he had been invited for.

And that was the beginning of the journey into fulfilment of the promise.
I still had to battle with my health and every cold season when others are grateful for the cool weather, I am in my room,with sweat shirts on, wrapped in blankets and crying for a change of health status.

The loss of my lover

No one could understand me like my best friend. She was a woman and I a male but that didn’t matter.
All that happens in school I’ll come home to tell her in details. She was my friend, my gist partner, my comfort and my mom. I can boldly say she was everything to me.

Life went on with my spiritual life growing, my academics flying higher and my health still unstable.

But all of it changed when I clocked age 16.
Some minutes past 12:00am on December 14th that year, my mum came into my room and did what she has never done before on my previous birthdays. She came in that mid night and prayed heartily for me and gave me some advice.

I didn’t understand the need for the special prayer until later in the month when I got to know that her days on earth were numbered.

My Lover had been suffering from cancer and I didn’t know till it had eaten so deep and brought her down. The remaining days of the year and early days of the next year were spent in the hospital.
I prayed for her survival and was always with her in the hospital day and night with little rest.

On the 8th of January, my dad came to the hospital and some other family members and all said I needed to go home to get rest for myself that day but my mum won’t let me. She asked that I stayed back with her.
Others left and Dad and I stayed with her.
Dad stayed by her side in her ward and I went to a room with a free bed and no patient to get some sleep, but I was restless.

I remained on the bed without sleep, listening to my mum’s heavy breathing coming from her room.
Some minutes past mid night,I still wasn’t able to get any sleep. At that point, a voice dropped in my mind asking; “What will you do if I take your mum?”. In a few seconds my thoughts ran through all that would happen after the death to her burial and thinking to the pain I will feel afterwards I started rejecting it and praying that she stays with me.

It is well

After my prayers, three words dropped in my heart and they were “It is well”. I felt peace within me and a weight lifted from off my shoulders.

Suddenly, I couldn’t hear her heavy breathing anymore. I went to the room to see her. On reaching there, dad had put off the lights and I just felt so much peace that I didn’t bother to put the lights on.

“Mum is resting” I said to myself and I went back into the room to rest and as I laid down on the bed, I slept peacefully till Dad came to wake me up for morning devotion.

And like I had thought, he also said “Let’s not disturb your mum,she is resting”. I looked to her face and saw the glow on her gentle face.
We went to another room for devotion with the calmness in our spirit that mum was resting.

My Uncle and his wife who was a nurse came not too long after to give mum food and Dad and I still said the same thing to them “Mum is resting”. The nurse checked her and was the first to know that the rest wasn’t the rest to wake up to us again but that which was beyond us.

My mum had really gone and was then described as “Our mummy who has gone to be in the Lord, resting in peace”.

I felt the void immediately but I held on to the words “IT IS WELL”..

To be continued…………… 

Let the comments flow in..

Have you learnt anything from the story so far?

What have you learnt and where do you think we are going with this? Will all really be well with Joshua after the demise of the only one he calls a friend?

How will he survive the struggles related to his health condition?

Let the comments flow in and keep your eyes fixed as we continue on Faithplane – A journey through faithway..