Malachi Schaeffer

The excerpt below is from my friends from West Houston Church of Christ, the Schaeffer family. Like Summer and Ethan, Malachi has ALM. He is beginning his last round of Chemo and I was humbled by the CarePages entry below. Their faith is unbelievable as you will read below:

This journey has taken our family so far. We are now relying on God to carry us through the fires to deliver us safely to the other side bringing anyone who will listen with us. One thing I have on my mind has been Why? I think now looking back on our journey I can see the why…Because Malachi is God’s messenger of promises. That is WHY!!! Ben and I choose Malachi Thomas’s name because of its meaning. We wanted a strong name that would remind him daily of whose he is. Malachi is God’s child and that He has made us the promise of the New Testament. We as parents were given the job of raising this sweet young boy to love God. Now others will also know their Savior because of him and the hold He has on Malachi’s life. Malachi 3:1-4 “See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the Lord, as in days gone by, as in former years.” John 6: 35-40 “Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do m own will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up on the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him the last day.” A short story about the way silver is purified was sent to me. It talked about how silver was placed in the hottest fire so that it could be purified. The silversmith had to keep a hold of it and watch closely to see when the purification had taken place. If not the silver could be burned and lost if not carefully taken care of. The silversmith also said that to know when the silver was ready was by looking closely to find a reflection of himself. This is how I have seen Malachi’s fight with Leukemia. He is being held by God in a fire that only He can rescue Malachi. The Lord is holding Malachi safely in His hand waiting for the reflection of Christ to show on his face. God is also purifying each of us to be holy and righteous. Malachi has been sent to bring the message of Christ’s promise of eternal life with HIM. Our prayer for Malachi is that he live a life worthy of Christ’s sacrifice. That his life being a sweet offering to our heavenly Father. Also others will be brought to Christ by Malachi’s example of bravery and strength as well as innocence and love. We are so thankful for all of the blessings we have received as the Lord does HIS work in each of our lives!!!