Last week I began piano lessons with a 4th grade girl whom I had met and known when she was a toddler. As she sat so tall, with perched eye glasses for her darling brown eyes, I was overcome by how much she had grown up since I last saw her. The energy and curiosity of youthfulness were still there, along with the growth of grace and maturity.
And then my mind took me down memory lane. I was a good friend of Norah’s mom, Amy, years ago when she sensed a calling to adopt. A young single woman at the time, I struggled with her desire to adopt when I knew how challenging it was to be a single parent. That is, until Amy shared how God had been at work in her heart.
She said two things that set the tone of this whole overseas adoption journey. First, a quote God had used to spur her on to such a task:
“A true Crosswalk is obeying where we have revelation in spite of the apparent contradiction in what we cannot explain. To obey only when we see that there will be a favorable outcome is not obedience. Obedience is supposed to be expensive. To embrace what He has shown us and to obey what He has commanded us, often in the midst of unanswerable questions, is an honor beyond measure.” Bill Johnson
And secondly, she said when praying the same argument of being a single parent, the Lord told her one parent was better than no parents. Alrighty, I thought. How does one argue with that? I was clearly won over to walk alongside her journey.
I watched Amy work very hard, fundraise and save to make this adoption possible. She made multiple trips to Russia in the process. It was a labor of love quite literally.
And then the trip came that was going to bring her little girl home from the orphanage. The medical process was intense there as well as upon her return to the U.S. She took extra time off work to help Norah bond with her new momma and invested in her physical needs which included leg braces. If I had one word to sum up Amy in this, it would be devoted.
Devoted to choose Norah and embrace all that choosing her meant. The rescue. The nurture. The compassion. The bonding. The growth. Of course, I’m sure there’s more that happened behind the scenes than I’ll ever know. Yet, I’ve seen enough to know a miracle when I see one.
Right down the same line of Jesus choosing us. He said yes when God called him to such a task. Devoted. Yes, He does all this and more for each one of us to be called his own.
It’s a miracle. And you’re a miracle.
Living ready means open arms to his choosing. Open arms to his devoted love that rescues, nurtures, and grows us up. And, as Amy, open arms to be used to do the same for others.
