Celestine Tate was in family court making an appearance before Judge Edward Rosenburg on a day in 1976.
The case had to do with the competency of this mother to care for her baby. The Pennsylvania Dept. of Public welfare believed this young mother could not care for her baby because she did not have the use of her arms or legs.
They wanted to place the baby in foster care.
Celestine Tate, wanting to prove she was able to look after her five-month-old daughter, went to the hearing with the judge and a room full of interested spectators.
The crowd watched in rapt silence and astonishment as the mother, using only her lips, undressed her baby then dressed her completely again.
Judge Rosenburg declared her to be a competent mother and ordered that she should have full custody of her child.
The love of the mother for her little baby enabled her to overcome what seemed to be an insurmountable difficulty, but love found a way!
God faced what seemed like an insurmountable difficulty. The first man and woman of His creation had turned traitorous and seemed beyond redemption.
The background to this situation is laid out by the English writer John Milton in his epic poem, Paradise Lost.
Milton describes how Lucifer, the Star of the Morning, Son of the Dawn, lost his exalted position in heaven and was driven into the abyss of hell.
Lucifer had become vain in his heart and thought to raise his throne above the stars of God to make himself like the Most High. Not being willing to be subject to God, he was cast out of heaven along with a great host of spiritual beings.
Satan – for this is his name now that he is expelled – recovered from the shock of his new environment, awakened all his legions and conferred with the leading personages.
There was a proposal to arraign themselves for an attack on the powers of heaven. In the end Satan distinguished himself as the great leader of the diabolical host and laid out his plan. He would by himself seek an exit from the inferno.
In this he was successful by persuading the keeper of the gate and a dark personage who was a companion at the gate. This dark person was death, who agreed to have the gate opened so they could all leave this place.
Satan had in mind to make his way to earth, and there do whatever spiteful harm he could to the newly formed creatures the Almighty intended to inhabit the earth.
The Bible gives the account of the harm that came to the woman and the man. They listened to the subtle persuasion of Satan and in disobedience to God partook of the fruit which brought misery and death.
This is what seemed to be an insurmountable challenge for God.
Here was the man and the woman who had switched allegiance from Him to this sworn enemy, the most evil person in the whole universe. Satan had come into God’s creation as a vandal to cause as much destruction and upheaval as his diabolical mind could conceive and he struck the pinnacle of creation the man and the woman.
Throughout human history and right up to this present time whenever you here of what seems like mindless vandalism, you can be sure Satan is a motivating presence.
What was God to do with the rebellious pair? Love found a way!
Human love is powerful and compelling as was demonstrated by Celestine Tate for her baby.
God’s love is even more amazing. His love was astonishingly intelligent and creative in formulating the plan of salvation – so that guilty sinners might be saved through the death and resurrection of His own Beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
His love still works powerfully to seek and to save those who are lost in misery and despair. The love of God will not rest until it seeks out and finds His elect all over the earth.
God would lavish His love upon any one of us if we would have it. Many a person has tried to run and hide from the God who loves and yet many people have been found and responded to His love.
“We love Him because He first loved us.”
Love found a way!
Lorne Moorhead is a retired pastor living in Flin Flon.
