Father of New Jersey girl, 6, who died following badminton accident shares daughter's child-like faith
The father of a 6-year-old New Jersey girl who died from head trauma after a freak accident involving a badminton racket on the final day of a family vacation shared his daughter's faith and the hope they held onto in the midst of tragedy.
Jesse Morgan, whose 6-year-old daughter, Lucy, unexpectedly died 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.
"There's no doubt in my mind that she and her imperfect understanding of life loved Christ and loved God," Morgan said. "And that God welcomed her into heaven.
"It was incredibly huge," he added of Lucy's faith.
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Lucy Morgan, 6, during the family's 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 and He created everything and He died on the cross for our sins." (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living Blog)
Jesse said after the family returned to their New Jersey home after Lucy's death in a Portland, Maine, hospital, a friend dropped off Lucy's backpack, which contained the 6-year-old's well-loved journal.
Lucy's prayer journal became a bright reminder during the family's darkest days.
"She got it a month before she passed," Jesse said. "It was my wife's idea. My wife is a journaler, and she said, ‘Hey, you can use this to write stuff, write to God if you want.’ She also wrote some spelling words in there."
Pictures from Lucy's journal showed the 6-year-old's thoughts. She wrote, "God is amazing" and "He created everything, and He 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's a kid, and part of our concern is that we want our kids to know God," Jesse said. "It wasn't a fear-based thing or a demand or forcing them. We want to compellingly show the love of Christ to our children so that they imperfectly see God's love mirrored in us and want more of that and want to pursue him."
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Morgan said witnessing Lucy's child-like faith was "one of the most beautiful gifts."
"I believe that she had the faith of a mustard seed."
— Jesse Morgan, Lucy Morgan's father
"I believe that she had the faith of a mustard seed," he said. "And Jesus calls the children to come to him. While her understanding was limited as a child, one of the most beautiful gifts (was) to open up and see the things she wrote, the things she drew."
Lucy was taken via medical helicopter to a nearby pediatric hospital and was later transferred to a hospital in Portland, Maine. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living Blog)
Jesse, a pastor at Green Pond Bible Chapel in Rockaway, New Jersey, prioritizes sharing the gospel of salvation with his four children.
"We've explained the gospel to our kids every day," Jesse said. "It wasn't a one-time event.
"We view it as a continual conversation with our children, all the time, but doubt circled in," he said. "Did I say it right? Did I do it right?"
Jesse shared that he and his wife struggled over whether they properly articulated the gospel to their 6-year-old prior to 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 said he asked himself.
Four days later, Lucy died due to her injuries, the family said. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living Blog)
Lucy's father said he turned to his blog, New Creation Living, as a "simple cry for help."
"The first post was simply a cry for help to people who I knew would pray for us, and it was a way for me to unpack the trauma that I was holding in my body," he said. "I continually found that to be a helpful process, for my process of grief and confusion and anger.
"I think God's just been pleased to use it, and it's been overwhelming. Yet I continue to seek to just be myself and to be authentic."
Jesse said people keep telling him they are amazed by his family's faith during the heartbreaking death of his young daughter, but he explained it was not as simple.
"We didn't want to hang on. There was a big part of us that wanted to be done with God," he said. "And we simply couldn't do it. It simply wouldn't happen."
Lucy and her mother, Bethany, and sister. Jesse Morgan said he and his wife were reading and relaxing when the badminton accident happened. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living Blog)
Jesse shared that he believes God placed circumstances in his family's life to prepare them for Lucy's death.
"God put all these things into our lives to, I feel like, 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 math and figure it out and explain it away." .
Jesse said two days before Lucy's unexpected death, the family sang, "He Will Hold Me Fast," by Christian singers Keith and Kristyn Getty and Selah.
"It can be summed up in one of the first lines: "When I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast," Jesse recalled. "I never really felt that, and I felt the prayers of millions of people, thousands of 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)
Jesse said he wants people to see the "miraculous" in the midst of his family's suffering.
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"It is Christ alone sustaining us."
— Jesse Morgan, Lucy Morgan's father
"It is Christ alone sustaining us," he said. "I don't want people to be gawking 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 that we're still trusting Him."
Lucy's brothers stand beside her in the pediatric intensive care unit. (Jesse Morgan via New Creation Living Blog)
Lucy succumbed to her head trauma injuries after a freak accident involving a badminton racket on the final day of her family's vacation in Maine.
Lucy was unexpectedly struck when the shaft of the racket, which was being used by her 10-year-old brother, broke apart and flew into her skull.
"Due to a freak accident with a racket that broke on a downward swing, a sharp piece had entered Lucy’s skull while she was sitting on the sideline and caused catastrophic injury," Jesse explained in a series of posts on his blog, New Creation Living. "She was still breathing but unresponsive as I held her with Bethany crying out to God."
Lucy was taken to a local hospital before being transported to a hospital in Portland, Maine.
Lucy with her three siblings 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 significant thorough testing and even more repeated tests to be certain, brain death was declared at 1:32 a.m. on June 5, and her heart stopped beating around 4 a.m.," Jesse wrote.
"Lucy was with Jesus."
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