The father of the 6-year-old New Jersey girl who died from head trauma caused by a strange accident involving a badminton racket on the last day of a family vacation shared her daughter's childhood faith and the hope they cling to in the midst of tragedy.
Jesse Morgan, whose 6-year-old daughter Lucy died unexpectedly following a badminton accident while playing with her siblings, shared with Fox News Digital his daughter's faith that continues to sustain the family of six during an unexpected tragedy.
“I have no doubt that she and her imperfect understanding of life loved Christ and loved God,” Morgan said. “And that God received her in heaven.”
“It was incredibly huge,” he said, speaking of Lucy's faith.
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Lucy Morgan, 6, during a family vacation in Maine days before her fatal accident. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Lucy Morgan wrote in her prayer journal that “God is so amazing and He is the true God, He created everything and died on the cross for our sins.” (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Morgan said that after the family returned to their New Jersey home following their daughter's death in a Portland, Maine, hospital, a friend dropped off Lucy's backpack, which contained the 6-year-old's beloved diary.
Lucy's prayer journal became a bright spot during the family's darkest days.
“He received it a month before he passed away,” Morgan said. “It was my wife's idea. My wife journals and she said, 'Hey, you can use this to write things down, write to God if you want.' She also wrote some spelling words in there.”
Images from Lucy's diary showed the 6-year-old's thoughts, writing, “God is amazing” and “He created everything and died on the cross for our sins.”
Lucy wrote in her prayer journal: “I love Jesus” with hearts. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
“She is a girl and part of our concern is that we want our children to know God,” he said. “It wasn't something based on fear or a demand or forcing them. We want to convincingly show the love of Christ to our children so that they imperfectly see the love of God reflected in us, and they want more of that and they want to seek it. “
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Morgan said witnessing Lucy's childhood faith was “one of the most beautiful gifts.”
I think she had the faith of a mustard seed.
“I think she had the faith of a mustard seed,” he said. “And Jesus calls children to come to him and to her, even though her understanding was limited as a child, that was one of the most beautiful gifts to open up and see the things she wrote, the things she drew.”
Lucy was flown by medical helicopter to a nearby children's hospital and later transferred to a hospital in Portland, Maine. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Morgan, pastor of Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, New Jersey, makes it a priority to share the gospel of salvation with his four children.
“We have explained the gospel to our children every day,” Morgan said. “It wasn't a one-time event.”
“We see it as a continuous conversation with our children, all the time, but doubts invade us,” he said. “Did I say it right? Did I do it right?”
Morgan shared that he and his wife struggled to figure out whether they had articulated the gospel to their 6-year-old daughter before her death.
“Was I good enough as a father, as a mother, to articulate that Jesus died for you, loved you, that we need his love, we need his death and resurrection,” Morgan wondered?
Four days later, Lucy died from her injuries, the family said. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Lucy's father said he turned to her blog, New Creation Living, as a “simple cry for help.”
“The first post was just a cry for help to the people I knew would pray for us, and it was a way for me to unravel the trauma I had in my body,” she said. “I continually found it to be a helpful process for my grieving process, confusion and anger.”
“I think God was pleased to use it and it's been overwhelming,” he said. “However, I'm still looking to be myself and be authentic.”
Morgan said people keep telling him they are amazed by his family's faith during his young daughter's heartbreaking death, but he explained it wasn't that simple.
“We didn't want to hold on. There was a big part of us that wanted to end up with God,” he said. “And we just couldn't do it. It just wouldn't happen.”
Lucy and her mother, Bethany, and her sister. Jesse Morgan said he and his wife were reading and relaxing when the badminton accident occurred. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Morgan shared that he believes God put circumstances in his family's lives to prepare them for Lucy's death.
“I think God put all these things in our lives to prepare us for this,” he said. “I don't even know what that means in God's plan, and I don't want to try to do divine calculations and figure it out and explain it.”
“It's not because of my strength,” he said.
Morgan said that two days before Lucy's unexpected death, the family sang “He Will Hold Me Fast” by Christian singers Keith & Kristyn Getty and Selah.
“It can be summed up in one of the first lines: 'When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will sustain me,'” Morgan recalled. “I never really felt that, and I felt the prayers of millions of people, thousands of people. from the people. I don't know how many people are praying and helping us. And that was it.”
Lucy's prayer journal also contained drawings of the family and the Bible, her father said. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Morgan said he wants people to see the “miraculous” amid his family's suffering.
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Only Christ sustains us.
“Only Christ sustains us,” he said. “I don't want people to gape at the tragedy, I want people to see the miraculous. God didn't do a miracle and bring her back, but God did do a miracle,” he said. “And that's what I want people to see, that in our hearts we still trust Him.”
Lucy's siblings are by her side while she remained in the pediatric intensive care unit. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Lucy succumbed to her head trauma injuries after a strange accident involving a badminton racket on the last day of his family's vacation in Maine.
Lucy received an unexpected blow when the handle of the racket her 10-year-old brother was using broke and flew into her skull.
“Due to a freak accident with a racket breaking on a downward swing, a sharp piece entered Lucy's skull while she was sitting on the bench and caused a catastrophic injury,” Morgan explained in a series of posts on his blog. . Life of the New Creation. “She was still breathing but unresponsive as she held her with Bethany crying out to God.”
Lucy was taken to a local hospital before being transferred to a hospital. in portland, maine.
Lucy with her three brothers while on vacation in Maine. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living blog)
Four days after the accident, Lucy succumbed to her injury.
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“After extensive and even more repeated testing to be sure, he was declared brain dead at 1:32 a.m. on June 5 and his heart stopped beating around 4 a.m.,” Jesse wrote.
“Lucia was with Jesus,” he said.
