August 31st, 2007
On August 14 our older daughter Annie gave birth to a son - Isaac Alfred Montgomery, 6 pounds, 13 ounces and 19 inches tall. Mother and child are healthy and doing great. Mother is losing her “baby fat” and Isaac is gaining his. We couldn’t be happier.
Isaac is our first grandchild and since we live within walking distance of their condo, we get to hold him almost every day. I had forgotten the joy of holding a newborn. The time I spend holding my grandson are the most enjoyable hours of my day.
He is perfect.
The first time you see little Isaac, you may be at a loss for words. You see, Isaac was born with a cleft palate. His upper lip is split and the front part of his palate is stretched over to the side which pulls his little nose to the right. This unique feature removes him from the list of what the world says is desirable. He isn’t the typical Gerber baby.
By the world’s standards, he’s not perfect.
That doesn’t matter to us…he’s our grandson and he is perfect.
I’m not trying to convince myself that he is perfect by repeating this mantra. Physically he may need an operation on his lip, but when I think about him, I only see perfection. I couldn’t be happier or more proud of my grandson.
If you have never held a newborn baby, you may wonder how we can say Isaac is perfect when he has an imperfect lip. I can’t explain it, but after you hold him for about a minute, you don’t even see his lip or anything else but this beautiful little cherub who is so precious.
Holding Isaac has helped me see life in a new perspective. The same week Isaac was born, I found out that the son and daughter-in-law of a close friend had a second miscarriage. Their whole family is devastated at the loss. To be honest, after her first miscarriage last year, I didn’t understand their grief. I’m ashamed to say that I thought, “The baby never was alive outside of the mother’s womb! What’s the big deal?”
After Isaac was born and I heard about her second miscarriage, I was devastated. I cried with a combination of sadness and joy as I held my alive and perfect grandson. We are so blessed.
That’s when I realized something; how I see little Isaac is how God sees us!
He sees us as perfect not because we are perfect – because we aren’t and never can be – but because He sees us through the blood of His Son. Satan tries to get us to dwell on our imperfections. His desire is to convince us that we aren’t worthy of God’s love, grace, and forgiveness. How can a righteous God love someone as imperfect as me?
Because He sees me through the Blood of the Lamb.
In the same way, the first time you see Isaac you may want to stare at his little imperfection. But that isn’t who he is. He’s going to have an operation to correct his little mouth, but I couldn’t care less. I don’t love Isaac any less because he has a split lip nor will I love him more when it is fixed. I love my little Isaac because he is my grandson!


