Luke Lindstrom arrived in a hurry. His dad, Jeff, and mom, Kelly, made the dinner-time drive to Duke in time for Luke to be born 5 minutes after they arrived on January 2.

“Luke seemed great when he was born,” Kelly says. But as the evening passed, Kelly and Jeff’s concern grew. “So the nurse in me was like, ‘there’s something wrong.’ And the Mom in me was like, ‘oh, he’s okay. He’s a newborn. He just wants to sleep.’ Then his fingers and toes started turning blue and he was rapidly breathing.” Their instincts were right. Luke was quickly moved to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) and placed in an oxygen tent.

In the NICU, Luke struggled as doctors worked to understand his problems. Finally, an echocardiogram showed an open PDA – a hole in Luke’s heart, that normally closes before a baby is born. Doctors began treatment for Luke’s heart.

With Kelly and Jeff’s attention focused on Luke at the hospital, older siblings Emma, Olivia, and Andrew waited at home. And the Lindstrom’s church family at Salem showed up with meals – three weeks of meals. “You know, it made a big difference,” says Jeff, “the support. And knowing that we weren’t alone, that we had a family at church supporting us.” Kelly describes how one of their children asked why people were bringing meals. “And it gave this really wonderful opportunity,” she says, “for us to sit down and talk about the function and role of the church.”

“All of that was completely unknown to us, but the Lord knew it the entire time. He was completely faithful.”

Beside the steady supply of meals, the church family prayed for Luke. With Luke still in the NICU, the Lindstroms attended a Saturday night worship service at Salem. Jeff recalls that service, saying, “Pastor Beckett was praying for Luke and it felt really calming …. A lot of people were getting together and praying for him, just lifting him up.” Kelly’s prayer for Luke in the NICU was “Lord, whatever your will is for his life, prepare us for it.” God answered the prayers. By day 10 in the NICU, the hole in Luke’s heart had closed. Jeff and Kelly brought him home.

Reflecting on God’s faithfulness, Kelly says, “We didn’t know that Luke was going to come very quickly. We didn’t know he was going to have any complications …. All of that was completely unknown to us, but the Lord knew it the entire time. He was completely faithful.”

The Lindstrom’s story first appeared in Salem’s March 2018 Update. Click here to download it!