Tonight I experienced many thankful moments. I love how God can take the situations of our lives and give us a deeper glimpse into His heart. I attended a shower for a young woman who is adopting her school aged foster child. To me and many others who were in attendance, this adoption is a culmination of a story so intricately woven, that it could only have been written by the loving hand of God. I would call it a miracle.
I first met this little boy at my pastor's home when he came to stay with them temporarily. As all children do that are in foster care, he had a background that had burdened him with many challenges. As I watched that family lovingly suck that child into their family unit, I thought to myself that there couldn't possibly be a better place for him to be. He went from being an only child to having 6 siblings, a mom, and a dad. In the months that followed, he blossomed and became settled for probably the first time in his first few years on earth.
As most people know, the foster care system is not perfect and due to weakness in the system, this little boy was ripped from this loving family and placed with a single woman. I watched as my pastor and his family fought to keep him and grieve when it became evident that there was nothing they could do to stop the transfer. It touched them on every level, even their faith, as they suffered the injustice of discrimination because of their beliefs and the political bias of a caseworker.
My husband and I spent many hours in prayer, along with the rest of our church family asking God for righteousness to prevail, but it seemed to no avail. However, God was hard at work, weaving a redemption story that only He could write.
Now I am Scottish & Irish on one side and German & Irish on the other so when all this happened, I was furious at the devil. (I usually get mad before I get sad. I'm definitely the fight part of fight or flight.) It was almost as if I could hear him laughing at the destruction he was causing. That's when my German side kicked in and I stubbornly refused to budge and give in. Scripture tells me that "the Lord laughs at the wicked for He sees their day is coming" (Psalm 37:13), and I realized that it's not over until God says it's over. I began to believe that what seemed to be loss could be gain if God had His way, so I began to pray and ask God to take what the devil meant for harm and use it for good. I asked Him to not let lives be lost, but saved as a result of this situation. I fully knew and believed that He could because I've seen Him do it so many times before.
I could make a very long list of "coincidences" and "connections" that were already in place, but God worked it out that the foster mom and my pastor's family became friends. God had already strategically placed people from our church in neighborhoods and schools that could minister to this mom and child and as things turned out, that little boy wasn't the only person who got adopted. As she stood at her shower, gushing with thankfulness for her new "family", she said, "I feel like I got adopted too." Where the devil thought he destroyed a life, God rescued two. Two lives collided at the cross and a family was formed.
I immediately thought of Calvary. Oh, how the devil must have revelled as Christ hung on the cross. His plan to destroy the Messiah had worked! Now all was lost. What he didn't know was that all was not lost, it was finished. The life he thought he had taken, was not taken, it was given and instead of all being lost, now all could be saved because this death had been God's life-plan all along. That's the God I serve!
So, today, I am thankful that even when we don't understand what God is doing, we can always know, it's good!
I first met this little boy at my pastor's home when he came to stay with them temporarily. As all children do that are in foster care, he had a background that had burdened him with many challenges. As I watched that family lovingly suck that child into their family unit, I thought to myself that there couldn't possibly be a better place for him to be. He went from being an only child to having 6 siblings, a mom, and a dad. In the months that followed, he blossomed and became settled for probably the first time in his first few years on earth.
As most people know, the foster care system is not perfect and due to weakness in the system, this little boy was ripped from this loving family and placed with a single woman. I watched as my pastor and his family fought to keep him and grieve when it became evident that there was nothing they could do to stop the transfer. It touched them on every level, even their faith, as they suffered the injustice of discrimination because of their beliefs and the political bias of a caseworker.
My husband and I spent many hours in prayer, along with the rest of our church family asking God for righteousness to prevail, but it seemed to no avail. However, God was hard at work, weaving a redemption story that only He could write.
Now I am Scottish & Irish on one side and German & Irish on the other so when all this happened, I was furious at the devil. (I usually get mad before I get sad. I'm definitely the fight part of fight or flight.) It was almost as if I could hear him laughing at the destruction he was causing. That's when my German side kicked in and I stubbornly refused to budge and give in. Scripture tells me that "the Lord laughs at the wicked for He sees their day is coming" (Psalm 37:13), and I realized that it's not over until God says it's over. I began to believe that what seemed to be loss could be gain if God had His way, so I began to pray and ask God to take what the devil meant for harm and use it for good. I asked Him to not let lives be lost, but saved as a result of this situation. I fully knew and believed that He could because I've seen Him do it so many times before.
I could make a very long list of "coincidences" and "connections" that were already in place, but God worked it out that the foster mom and my pastor's family became friends. God had already strategically placed people from our church in neighborhoods and schools that could minister to this mom and child and as things turned out, that little boy wasn't the only person who got adopted. As she stood at her shower, gushing with thankfulness for her new "family", she said, "I feel like I got adopted too." Where the devil thought he destroyed a life, God rescued two. Two lives collided at the cross and a family was formed.
I immediately thought of Calvary. Oh, how the devil must have revelled as Christ hung on the cross. His plan to destroy the Messiah had worked! Now all was lost. What he didn't know was that all was not lost, it was finished. The life he thought he had taken, was not taken, it was given and instead of all being lost, now all could be saved because this death had been God's life-plan all along. That's the God I serve!
So, today, I am thankful that even when we don't understand what God is doing, we can always know, it's good!
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