The mom of little Olive Heiligenthal has spoken out after her two year-old daughter has been buried.
Olive went down for her day sleep just a few weeks ago and never woke up. Her parents, Andrew and Kalley Heiligenthal, along with their church, Bethel Church in northern California, asked for Christians to pray for a miracle.
“Last night around 11:55 I felt the tension. The resistance to move into a decade without Olive. I can access the searing shock of the last couple weeks and stop there, but if I push one step further, 2019 is overwhelmingly saturated with treasured memories I would never trade and will fight to cherish. So I choose tender thankfulness. As for the future, as I feel the noble aching lack of her not with us for a lifetime, the better truth is I can look just beyond and know so vividly that this life is only a breath, and for all eternity we’ll be close again.
“Jesus bought that for us. So I choose triumphant thankfulness. And the more I do it the more I feel it. There is a heaven that is more real and vivid than what we have here and it’s pressing in on us. Jesus is alive, Olive is alive in Him, so we press back and live fully alive too.”
Christians the world over were praying for Olive’s resurrection.
“We’re asking for prayer,” she commented in an Instagram post at the time of Olive’s passing. “We believe in a Jesus who died and conclusively defeated every grave, holding the keys to resurrection power. We need it for our little Olive Alayne, who stopped breathing yesterday and has been pronounced dead by doctors. We are asking for bold, unified prayers from the global church to stand with us in belief that He will raise this little girl back to life. Her time here is not done, and it is our time to believe boldly, and with confidence wield what King Jesus paid for. It’s time for her to come to life.”
Kalley has been a worship leader and songwriter at Bethel Church and with Bethel Music since 2014. She also serves as 2nd Year Worship Pastor for Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry.