Mother's Day Thoughts

(I know this is a few days late but it took a little while to put my thoughts into words.)

As I celebrate the blessing of a godly mother in my own life I can't help but thank the Lord for the blessing of the sweet son he has granted to me and my husband. I love the craziness of our life. I love that my son runs to me when he needs a kiss or a hug to make everything better. I wouldn't trade the stress and lack of sleep for anything.

However, as I am reminded of God's great goodness through the blessing of my little boy I can't help but feel an ache in my heart on a day like Mother's Day. Our sweet family is separated from our daughter who is somewhere halfway across the world. My heart aches for her birth mother and whatever decisions and life experiences led her to surrender her daughter. Why must this world be so broken that families are torn apart? Why are there hundreds of thousands of orphans around the world? When my head begins to swirl with questions I remember that this isn't how things were intended. Although my desire for years has been to bring our daughter home from India the circumstances that led up to this point were not what God originally designed for his creation.

When He spoke this world into being there was no separation. There were no empty arms or aching hearts. But now everything is a mess. Sickness and death, prejudice and hate, loneliness and separation invade the cracks and crevices of this entire world and we all feel it. Aside from the fact that my children are already broken by sin they will also have to endure the brokenness of this world. One of my children already knows this reality too well. All I can think to do today is pray that the Lord can use our family to be a part of the healing process. May we in some small way live out the life giving, sin crushing, hope restoring, joy inducing, powerful reality of the Gospel.

There will be a day when the hugs and kisses won't just make the boo-boos go away so with that in mind I need to point my children to the One who brings complete healing and comfort. May this adoption journey be a reminder to those looking on that Christ came to restore a broken world. He came to undo all that sin had ravaged. Let us live lives that continually point to the One who has given everything so that we might become sons and daughters of God. Let us address the brokenness of the world head on and display the grace and love that we have been given. Let us love not with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.