The Stars Were Brilliant

On the night of November 25th, we left the Butterfly Room at the hospital and walked outside through the little garden there and out into the parking lot.  It was night and the sky was clear.  A baby had died that evening.  We went to Chili's to eat something - who knows if we were hungry - and the back to Ronald MacDonald House for the rest of the night.  

The next night, after spending the day making plans and arangements, we made the trip back to New Bern.  Eric and Kelly drove their car, and John and I flew in the Columbia.  It was the same time of evening the night that Beau was born that John had flown there to Greenville.  Beau had been born in New Bern, but was life-flighted to Greenville.  As John was making his approach to the Greenville airport that night, Beau's helicopter was making its approach at the hospital.  I had these things in mind as we took off into the night and headed for New Bern.  It was beautifully clear and quiet, and the stars were brilliant that night.  They seemed to me to be the distant diamond portals of heaven, and Beau seemed so very far away.  I cried all the way.

Later, on the night of December 6th - three days after the burial - we visited the cemetery for their annual Christmas Luminaria event.  The Harpeth Hills folks place a luminaria at each grave, and we wanted to see Beau's grave and its candle.  But what a sight greeted our eyes as the cemetery came into view!  There laid out before us, up and down the rolling hillsides, were hundreds and thousands of little twinkling lights.  It was if the stars themselves had fallen from the sky and lay scattered in the valley.  I felt as though the heavens had placed a benediction on those who sorrowed.So this Christmas, amidst the ornaments on our tree, we placed a star - Beau's Star - that reminds us of the beauty and brilliance of heaven and earth, and of a baby born to walk amongst the stars.