Caleb's eulogy - from calebrikkilambert.tripod.com

EULOGY – Caleb

In the Bible, Moses led Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea. For 40 years they travelled until they came to Canaan, the promised land of “milk and honey”. Moses sent out spies from all 12 tribes of Israel to see what the land was like, and what the inhabitants’ military strength was like. 10 spies reported the land was beautiful and bountiful, but its inhabitants too strong to dislodge. 2 said the land was indeed beautiful and bountiful, its inhabitants strong but not as strong as the Lord, who would give Israel the power to conquer the inhabitants. The majority ruled, and they turned away for another 40 years in the desert. After those 40 years, the Lord helped them conquer Canaan, but only two faithful men from 40 years ago were allowed to enter the land this time – the rest were condemned to perish in the desert. Those two were Joshua and Caleb.

Faith. Caleb and Joshua both had faith. In this message about the life of our son Caleb, I want to focus on faith.

Tracking back some 7 months or so before Caleb was born I recall being in the Berri Court house representing a client. My mobile rang. It was the doctor’s surgery. I left in a hurry and met Kristin at the surgery. Our 20-week scan had identified a problem – a large fluid filled gap in the brain. We needed Kristin to go in for another scan. The scan confirmed the problem, and we made our first of many trips over the last 2 years to the Womens and Children’s Hospital.

The experts confirmed the baby had a cyst or some other problem with his brain. We were offered the opportunity to abort. The Lord gave us faith. We chose to keep the baby, we felt we would love him no matter what happened to him. He would be our son. It was at this time, during these scans, we abandoned our hope of keeping the baby’s gender a mystery until birth. We wanted to name the baby, so that people could start praying for him while he grew in the womb. The baby was a boy. We thought about possible names. We remembered the story I have just told you from the Bible – a story about the faith of Joshua and Caleb. We knew we needed that sort of faith, to believe in the Lord despite the odds. So Caleb it was.

We prayed and prayed, and people all over the world prayed for Caleb. He was born on the day we chose for him due to the Caesarean required to birth him – 20/04/2004. The doctors had warned us that he may die at birth, unable to breathe.
His birth was so joyful, we laughed and cried when he cried immediately.
Two weeks later Caleb had two operations where he was given a shunt.

Caleb gave us so much joy. He was the happiest child you ever knew. He was always smiling. He never cried about a stranger holding him, and liked to snuggle in. He spoiled us in that he never was clingy, he was quite happy playing for a long time, hours even – on his own on the lounge room floor. He was also very content snuggling and cuddling in our arms long after other babies would want to wriggle away.

Developmentally Caleb was going fine. He had no ongoing complications with his shunt inserted to drain brain fluid from the cyst. The doctors said that due to the location of the cyst Caleb would almost certainly be blind. Whilst his eyes were crooked, he could see. The boy without the part of the brain you need to see, could see his mummy and daddy and even a toy across the room to crawl over to. He demonstrated in that little body the way the Lord can work miracles. He had 4 teeth.

Caleb was doing so well. He could sit up by himself, take weight on his legs, and would touch his nose when we said “where’s Caleb’s nose”.

Caleb’s death came unexpectedly. Early Monday morning Caleb vomited a few times, he then slept for the next day. These were signs that the doctors had told us to look out for. Kristin drove Caleb to the WCH that afternoon arriving at 5pm. At around 10.30pm Caleb stopped breathing, he was resuscitated before having brain fluid drained. He never regained consciousness having sustained damage to his brainstem.

Now, we can see that clearly the LORD was calling Caleb back to him. Back into the arms of Jesus. Into those safe arms. In faith we chose to take Caleb off of life support and let his body die. We knew he was already in the arms of Jesus, or at least on his way. So we sang to him that song “Jesus Loves Me” which we will sing today. And I urged him “You run to Jesus. When you see the light, you run to it. Don’t wait – just run to Jesus. You’ll have fun there, and we will see you there soon.” Caleb died peacefully in our arms and felt no pain.

I have no doubt as to where Caleb is today. As parents we feel we have achieved what every parent ought to for their child – to see them safely to heaven, to be with us for eternity one day. We did everything we could and we have no regrets. Even though we have only had him for a short time

I hope you can see from Caleb’s life a message of faith.

Please, we beg those of you who do not know the Lord – find this faith, before it is too late. If you know the Lord, keep seeking this faith. The Bible says that those who are baptised and believed will be saved. Caleb was baptised, but a time comes when you must also believe. We beg you to believe because we want to be there with you when we are united with our Lord, and with Caleb, in heaven for eternity.

We will play now a presentation of Caleb’s life in video and images, which I think you will agree proves that pictures speak a thousand words.

May God bless you all.