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Friday, May 21, 2010

FYI

Just a quick post to let you know that the two posts below this one were started a while back, but never finished.  I have finally finished them and posted so that´s why they seem out of order.  Soon there will be some other ones that I started earlier as well.  Come back and visit to see what´s happening in our topsy-turvy lives.  It´s so crazy right now I´m posting out of order.  ;^)

Knit Together


Last Saturday I had an opportunity to climb Mt. Tunari...the highest mountain in Cochabamba towering at over 17,000 feet. It was an amazing experience. While hiking up the mountain I had some time to think about the journey between trying to breathe in the little oxygen that is available at that altitude. Two weeks before our quest I broke the middle toe on my left foot. Although it was physically challenging, I did okay on the climb up the mountain, but on the way down, boy did my toe tell me that we were not having fun anymore.


It made me think about the verses in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 where Paul talks about us all being different parts of one body and how we are each dependent on one another. That day climbing up the mountain I knew that my toe was an intricate part of my body and the rest of the body was dependent on my toe to help get me down the mountain. It´s amazing how much my toe hurting affected my whole being. A small seemingly insignificant part of my body being ´out of whack´ made it hard for me to think of much else.

Isn´t that the way it is in the Body of Christ? We are all dependent on each other. We need each other on our climb. We are to work together in order to reach the world with the good news that God loves them. When something is wrong or broken with the least of us, it affects us all...more than we would think. It affects how effectively we can accomplish our mission. It´s not a small thing when a member of the body (or the Body) is broken. We need each part. Each part has a purpose and God put all the parts together just as He wants them. I want to learn to protect the more vulnerable parts of the Body like I do my own body. When something comes flying toward my face, my whole body jumps out of the way in order to protect my face. When I drop something and it´s heading for my toes, my whole body moves out of the way to protect my foot. Unfortunately in the Body of Christ it seems that when one member is hurting or injured we want to leave them behind or cut them off instead of seeing what we can do to help the healing process. I want to see the object flying toward the face or the toes and help them get out of the way.

My journey down the mountain (and even up the mountain) would have been more pleasant if my body had been whole. Even though I limped through it and made it, it would have been so much more enjoyable if part of me wasn´t injured. I´m glad the rest of my body pitched in and carried me through (and let me rest the next day in bed with my toe up). I want to be there to encourage, help and when necessary carry those parts that are weak and hurting along with me on our journey. I want to be able to stop being so concerned with which part I am and what my function is and see what I can do to help the rest of the Body. God, open my eyes to the hurting ones of your Body and give me strength and courage to help them.





Here we are at the top.  Thankfully I had my friends to encourage me or else I might not have kept going.  Thanks Angie and Julie!!  That´s the way the Body should work!  Love you guys.

Happy Birthday Josh!

Today is Josh´s 12th birthday.  Only 11 and one-half short years ago Josh came home to live with us...his forever family.  I am grateful to the caretakers who cared for him before I could.  I am grateful to the doctors and nurses who helped him through failure to thrive, encyphalitus, and pneumonia at his tiny little weight of 3 pound 9 ounces.  I am grateful to his birthmom who chose to have him. 

How blessed I am to be Josh´s mommy.  I can not begin to tell you the blessing that he is in my life.  He is my little buddy.  He likes to just stand by me and rub my back or my hands or my feet even.  Who couldn´t love a kid like that?  He is constantly seeking to serve others.  He´s a good example to the rest of us in the family.

As I think back on those days only 11 and a half years ago that he came home with us from South Korea to become a Holman and live with his forever family, it makes me reflect on how I have been adopted into God´s family. Adopting Josh gave me a new perspective on the passages in the Bible where it speaks of our adoption.

When we first made the decision to adopt Josh, he had no idea who we were or that we even existed, but we knew he existed and we knew we wanted him to be our son.  We chose him and we loved him even before he ever met us or knew who we were.  We made a way to get him to us.  In the same way, God chose us before we ever knew He existed.  He loved us long before we ever even knew who He was much less loved him.  He made a way for us to have a permanent relationship with Him as our Father at great sacrifice.  He put us into his family with all the rights of a born child.  Josh has become who he is in large part because of the parents he has.  Being part of our family has molded him just as being part of God´s family has molded me into who I am.  Josh now loves us, because we first loved him and treated him as a son just as we love God because He first loved us and adopted us into His family and cared for us and met our needs.  Our choosing Josh had nothing to do with what he could offer us, but what we could give to him.  God´s choosing me had nothing to do with who I was or what I could become, it was out of his benevolence and love, it was out of his goodness that He choose me. 

I am so glad to be an adoptive parent as it taught me these things and so much more about the way that God adopts us into His family and how much He loves us.  I am also glad to be an adoptive daughter....adopted by the King.  My girls love to say how they really are princesses, because their Father is the King of Glory.  How true that is!