Have you ever seen such beautifully expressive and eloquent eyes?

They belong to Martin Lee, the 2-week-old son of Steven and Jamie Lee. If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you’ve probably been blessed by Steven’s website ministry, SermonAudio.com, of which he is the President.

Steven and Jamie have known for a while that Martin was going to be born with some serious health problems, and, sure enough, within days of his birth, he required a nine-hour open heart surgery, the first of many he will require in the years ahead (D.V.)

Steven’s a dear friend of mine and he gave me permission to post these pictures and point people to his blog, where he’s been been posting updates for the tens of thousands of Christians around the globe who are prayerfully concerned for his family, a family that has been such a blessing to the whole world for so many years.

I love Steven’s blog posts and updates; they are so real, so human, and yet so full of spiritual maturity and stability throughout all the traumatic ups and downs of these weeks. They also have some moving pictures. I mean, who could not pray after seeing such eyes?

They seem to say “Daddy, can you get these tubes off me and take me home!” Yet they are what’s keeping little Martin alive.

We often feel like little Martin, don’t we. There are things in our lives we so want to be rid of and free from. They make us so uncomfortable and unhappy. We look up to our heavenly Father and plead plaintively, “Father, will you please take these things away?”

But He knows they are essential for our spiritual health. No matter how uncomfortable, upsetting, or intrusive, our heavenly physician will not take them away while we need them.

I’m sure He’d love to take them away, just as Steven and Jamie at times would love to pull out all these pipes, sweep up little Martin, and run away home with him. However, God loves us too much to save us short-term pain at the expense of long-term gain.

We keep on praying that the day will soon come, when little Martin will be free of wires, cords, lines, etc, and be safely ensconced at home in the loving arms of his parents.

But the joy of that longed-for day is a mere shadow of the eternal day when the Lord will remove all that discomforts and distresses us, sweep us up in His arms, and take us home to be ensconced in His love forever. Then we’ll look back and say, “Father, thank you for every tube, every cord, yes even every tape removal!”

Please pray for the Lee family, and keep updated with Martin’s progress via Steven’s blog.