His Call

I have been thinking over the past few days about how we as people tend to classify and categorize things so quickly.  Including children.  It starts almost immediately with the question, "Is ______ a good baby?"  We put them into a category depending on how they sleep, how content they are.....you know the drill.  Before long we start comparing our children to our friends' children.  Are they getting better grades?  Are they as athletic?  Playing as many instruments?  We either start feeling superior or inferior based on our children's performance. 

Actually, I take that back.  It starts while they are in utero.  You wait with bated breath, watching the sonographers face for any sign that something is amiss with your growing child.  People say, "As long as they are healthy......"  But, what if they aren't "healthy"?  What if something shows up that we deem "special needs"?  Immediately, your child is categorized and given a label.  Without thought to the intricacies and beauty that is within your child waiting to be found. 

Part of what has made me think more this week than some weeks is the fact that my cousin and his wife are embarking tomorrow to Armenia to meet their newest daughter.  You see, their biological daughter born to them a few years ago was given the label spina bifida.  Was it scary?  You bet!  Was it unchartered territory?  Absolutely!  Has their daughter grown and thrived!  Yes and yes!  When you are forced to walk a journey you wouldn't maybe choose willingly you learn something important.  God meets you completely and graces you daily.  I am not speaking from personal experience but am pretty sure that if you are walking beside your child who has a special need and you feel God's grace you may think it is possible to love and care for another with His help.

This week they will be meeting their daughter who has a different special need.  She is blind.  Something my cousins wife said really struck me.  She said, "We don't really know anything about her except that she is blind.  But we didn't know anything about ________ when she was born except that she had spina bifida."  Do you see what has happened?  Trust.  Trust in a Father who has not left them to walk this journey alone.  Trust that if this is their daughter than anything else is really inconsequential.  Trust.......something I have much to learn about and allow to settle deeper in my heart.

Would some of you pray this week for them specifically?  I didn't ask their permission to divulge their names or their story.  But you can contact me and ask for their names if you would like.  Or just pray since God knows exactly who they are.  I have already been praying specifically that their newest little girl, who is 5 years old, will somehow know immediately that the arms that hold her are safe.  And that God would already be whispering to her heart that her momma and daddy are coming.  Isn't He awesome?!