Epiphany...
A sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by simple or commonplace occurrence or experience.
The liturgical church celebrates the season after Christmas as Epiphany. It is a time when we remember the journey of the wise men following the star to find the King of Kings. The definition above doesn't do justice to the epiphany that these men probably had when they found the Lord Jesus. After such times in our own lives, if we are open to God's molding, there will also be a period of growth.
After several months of having our precious daughter home with us I am having an epiphany about what God is doing. He is allowing me a tiny glimpse into His workshop....
I was blessed to read a blog about the adoption story of a woman named Sara. It's called
Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet and she writes about things in her life that are so similar to mine, but in a way that I cannot. In this post, anytime you see these { } that means they are Sara's words, not mine. And I must also give her credit for the inspiration behind this post...so much of it will be paraphrased but with details changed. She has given me permission to do this.
God is doing a mighty work in this home. Sara (the one above, not our daughter, whose name has an h on the end) relates it to our home being a greenhouse where there is dirt and mess and time going by when we don't see anything happening. But underneath the dirt and the trash, there is a sprout...a shoot of new growth...
During 12 long years in an institution Hannah learned a set of skills and built a hard, tough, shell around herself that helped her survive. She {has a heart that longs to live childlike free, but is trapped behind years of inertia. At times she moves like a freight-train - unstopping, always racing, never able to rest. She didn't stop then, so why now? Rest was danger, how could it, overnight, turn into safety? She barrels through life and at times people. It's what she's always done. It was her survival. But tucked behind 10 of her missteps is one move in the right direction, one sprig of beauty. }
{One of the greatest dangers of adoption is believing for your child what your child already believes about themselves. It's subtle. And easy when the sum total of all their behaviors in a given day seems to point in one direction.
But we weren't called to be the thermometer in the life of a child who has years of seeing themselves in only one light. We are here to tell them who they really are and, in the light of who He is that they are royalty. They just don't know it yet. They haven't been told.}
But God, in His mercy is in the process of winning her back. {He kneels, toes pressed against the ground, staring into dirt, and His fingers so tenderly search for that one shoot that says life is here. He wades through years of lies calcified against my heart to find His own truths buried within, and He calls them forth. I call myself "messy" and He says beauty in the making.}
{Perspective is everything.}
{The Father looks on my daughter not with eyes of hopelessness and fear. He stares into her deep and calls forth Himself, planted in her from before the day she met the streets. What the enemy calls misfit, He reclaims as heiress.}
She cherishes the time we spend together at the end of the day. Cuddled up in a big chair in her room is a safe place where she can let down her guard. She knows enough English now to be able to begin to understand what I'm saying when I talk about how much she is loved. God loves her so much that He gave is only Son so that she could spend eternity with Him. There is not another time during the day when she is so totally focused. I am praying for her, over her and through her all of God's love and am trying to saturate her life with His word. Please pray with me that His word will take root and she can begin to let go of the lies and break out of that shell that she believes she needs to be safe.
No comments:
Post a Comment