Worship Leader Who Lost Sons in Tragic Wreck Rejoices in Zechariah 9:12 Miracle
Family and friends are calling them angels and miracles. Hadley Eddings just gave birth to a set of twins.
And while new life is always cause to rejoice, it’s particularly sweet for Eddings and her husband Gentry, who lost their toddler and newborn sons in a horrific wreck in 2015.
The Eddings named the twins Isaiah Dobbs and Amos Reed, each middle name to honor their older brothers who died in the wreck.
“We are thrilled for Gentry and Hadley and are continually amazed at how God continues to redeem their story. From the tragic loss of their sons, Dobbs and Reed, to the remarkable birth of their twins, Isaiah and Amos—God is creating beauty from ashes,” Stacey Martin, family friend and director of communications at Forest Hill Church, tells People magazine.
The couple held to the promises of God throughout their sons’ deaths and now births.
“[I’ve] been reflecting today on the past two years of my life. They’ve been tough ones most definitely, but I’ve been thinking more so about God’s goodness and faithfulness to us—about His provision for our needs, about the peace He has given us in the pain about the joy that He has given us in our mourning. I’ve been thinking about His resurrection and how incredible it is that we have a savior who died for us and defeated death so that we could live with Him eternally if we just choose to trust Him. And I’ve been thinking about how because He chose to die for us, I get to see Dobbs and Reed again. Death isn’t the end of their story or their lives,” Hadley posted to Facebook the week before the twins’ births.
She continued:
Today in church we sang the song “O Praise the Name”—it says: “For endless days we will sing your praise,” I just kept picturing my family in heaven, worshipping at the feet of Jesus, standing before Him in praise, for who He is and what He has done in our family specifically. I could just see myself standing next to Gentry with three babies in my no longer empty arms, Reed and the twins, and Dobbs at my side with his little hands raised, worshipping a God who carried us all the way.
“O trampled death where is your sting?” I think about what Satan thought he would accomplish in our car accident—death. And while earthly death did occur, God has showed off in bringing life to so many, bringing beauty through our ashes. Not that the deaths of Dobbs and Reed don’t hurt like hell, but the lasting sting of them is gone because we will be together again. “He shall return in robes of white, The blazing Son shall pierce the night. And I will rise among the saints, My gaze transfixed on Jesus’ face”
Now, as we have one week left until we meet our twin baby boys, I think about Gods restoration. Zechariah 9:12 says “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope, today I declare I restore to you double”—I will get to hold God’s restoration in my arms next Monday—not a replacement for the sons we’ve lost but restoration of what we’ve lost until we are all together in heaven. And though I may have to wait a while, eternity is going to be much longer and more beautiful that the life I have here.
O Praise the name of the LORD our GOD, O praise His name forever more. I am so so so thankful.
“We believe there is a lot of hope in our story and it reminds us God is a restorer,” Gentry says.
Amen! {eoa}
