Ben and Astrea Jones of Glennville, CA certainly have their hands (and their house) full! Their 10 children– yes, you read that right– range in age from 23 years to 9 months old. This past September their youngest son was born with Down’s Syndrome. This remarkable family faced that challenge with grace, faith and compassion. Here is Ben’s story of how God used the words of a song to comfort and inspire them in their journey.

Astrea, Ben’s wife whom he calls “Wonder Woman, then from left to right:
Grace- 12, Ethan- 5, Molly- 23, Faith- 10, Joseph- 9 Months, Andrew – 3, Zachary- 18 (who is a great bass singer, his father reports), Abigail- 15, Meg- 7, Elizabeth-21

“Last year after we got home from the hospital with our newest son Joseph, my (at the time) 9 year old daughter Faith held Joseph and started singing to him a Booth Brothers song called “Masterpiece of Mercy.” It just made me bawl because I knew that she was holding our own Masterpiece of Mercy from God.”

“Fast forward—this past April when I was at the Fan Fest in Visalia, the Booth Brothers were singing that song. I had sort of a flashback to my daughter holding our little bundle of mercy, and of course started to cry. I was standing in back with some of the artists and was trying to inconspicuously disappear behind the curtain, but I chose the wrong one. Standing right there was Rodney Griffin, who co-wrote that song with Jim Brady. He asked me if I was o.k. I told him about Joseph and Faith, and we both cried. Then he said I needed to tell Jim Brady too, which I did– no surprise there, we ALL cried! It was really special because they both said they never thought of their song from that viewpoint. It is amazing how God uses songwriters and songs to minister to different people in different ways.”

“I would be honored for you to share this, because there just might be that one person out there who needs to be reminded that we are all wonderful creations of God himself—no mistakes, only Masterpieces.”

  Ben

Below is the youtube video showing Ben’s daughter singing the Booth Bros. song to Joseph