Life

Sometimes our great, big world gets very small. Like when we move at least an hour's drive away from every one of our family members and friends. Like when we are working to set up a new home, get our family settled in a new community and are smack in the middle of the International Adoption process. Like when we try out three different churches and still don't feel like we've found the one that feels like home. Like when something as simple as going on a date requires two or three months advanced planning, and sometimes even an airline ticket for Grandma. Like when we find out that someone we love dearly really is mortal, and we feel like there we have no friends around with which to share the journey.


Then, there are the times that our small, isolated world grows exponentially over night. Like when we discover blogging; first to learn more about adoption, but stick around because the community and support is amazing. Like when long, lost friends find us, even in a new house 50+ miles away. Like when we have a chance encounter with cousins we haven't seen in years, and they decide to keep visiting from time to time. Like when a complete stranger, with nothing in common but the fact that we both adopted from Ethiopia, sends an email to say they live nearby and would love to meet; and by the way, there is another family just like us in THE TOWN WE LIVE IN. Like when that family reaches out, is not turned away by our procrastination, and even invites us to come to a Bible Study.

Not every season is sunshine and flowers. As our world keeps turning around; the scorching Summer that feels like we are in the refiners fire, the dry, windy Autumn that reminds us of the impending strife ahead, the frigid, bitter Winter that feels never ending, and finally, the Spring that breaks Winter's back, and with it's showers restores the earth to glory and beauty; are all inevitable. Sometimes we wish that we could pick and choose the seasons of our lives. At the very least, we would like the seasons themselves to be as predictable as those on the calendar. But alas, that's just not how life works.


As we skip and laugh through our lovely Springs, life feels very free and easy. In fact, it's not hard for us to forget that it can be any other way. Not until the burning heat of Summer comes, or the cold death of Winter arrives, do we remember how small, insignificant and without control we really are. How will we survive these tests? How will we get to the other side of the chasm of fear or loss that now live in our hearts? We know we can't do it alone, and some fears and thoughts just feel too deep to bare.

Well, this is the best part. We don't have to be by ourselves. We don't have to rely on another person that is just as fallible as us, who may or may not understand our burden. We have a Father in Heaven that desperately wants to be the one to hold us when we need to cry, or listen when we need to call out and question the "hows" and "whys". He loves every one of us insignificant, fallible, imperfect people, and even went so far as to send His one and only Son to die for our every sin. If we are in a season of strife, fear, loss or refining, we only need to invite Him in. Just like the bulbs that are planted in the Fall, held tight by Winter's frozen grip, but faithfully come peaking up through the ground in the Spring, know that the Lord is faithful in providing everything we need to survive and overcome.