My Favorite Memory

My church is doing a series called “Adopted.”  Adoption is such a cool picture of what God does for us. He sent Jesus to die for my sins and adopted me as his daughter. I am a daughter of the King! How often I forget to live in that truth. I hope one day that I will be able to adopt, but for now I have to be content in supporting adoptive and foster parents.

This has reminded me of a memory that is emblazoned in my mind and today I have decided it is my favorite memory (and I have a ton of great ones). I was going off to school at Baylor. We were running late to the airport and so my mom dropped my dad and I off at the curb to check in while she went to park the car. My mom decided that my dad should be the one to take me out to school so he could help carry all my stuff up to my 3^rd floor dorm room and then she would come out for Parent’s Weekend in a few weeks.  This was a pre-9/11 world, so once we got checked in my mom was going to meet us at the gate to say our goodbyes.  They were announcing last call to board our plane and my mom still hadn’t shown up yet. I was upset.  Then I see my mom hustling through the airport and I break into tears.  We said our goodbyes and I boarded the plane.

We were last to board and we walked past row and rows of people staring, my face stained with ugly crying. I was 18 for goodness sakes, too old to cry. We settle into our seats next to this white women and tiny Asian baby.  Of course we enquire.  She told us that she was a courier. That she had been to Korea to pick up this sweet baby girl for a family in Austin. I want to do that!

We landed and my dad suggested that we hold back so we could see the family meet their daughter for the first time. Everyone slowly filed off the plane until we were the last ones. We the helped this lady carry all the bags that a little baby requires and we walked off the plane. There waiting at the end of the jet bridge was a little family.  There was the dad ready with his video camera to record this monumental day.  The mom had tears flowing down her face as she waited to hold her princess for the first time. Then there was a proud, big brother, an adorable red-head 3-year-old with a bowtie and sweater vest in August with a bouquet flowers for his new baby sister. What a beautiful tableau that I got to witness! This is definitely my favorite memory. 

Here is a cool story they showed in church on Sunday.

 

James 1:27

 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world

Complete Defiance

So, I coach 7 classrooms in the pre-school program at my church. This means helping all the parents get their kids checked in, making sure all the classes have the appropriate supplies, and essentially just making things run as smoothly as possible. This past Sunday we had our highest number of pre-schoolers at our service ever.  Praise God that parents are getting a chance to hear the Word in big church, but man it created a rough Sunday for me.

The kids seemed to have eaten skittles for breakfast as they were bouncing off the walls and were  particularly defiant.  One 4-year-old was hitting another one and would not stop acting up, so his teacher had to take him into the hallway so that he would not distract the other kids. I tried to talk to him about loving his neighbor, but he stuck his fingers in his ears and mocked me the whole time. I was frusterated.

Afterwards, I was talking to a sweet friend about how frustrated I was with the complete defiance I saw and she was gracious enough to remind me that I am exactly the same. I am given the gospel over and over and yet most of the time I do not live in that truth. God does not cast me out as a lost cause but instead pursues me with divine patience. On those crazy days, it is easy to get wrapped up in the tasks and forget my purpose is to demonstrate Christ’s love to these kids.

Now, looking back, I am thankful for that interaction. How gracious God is to remind me of what he has done for me and I can't help myself but pray for that boy! And, for some reason, I can't wait to see him next week and welcome him back to class. I think God is going to do great things through him!

 

1 John 4:10-11, “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (ESV)