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Yesterday I got to go to a party. I wanted to tell you all about it. It was a party to celebrate prayers answered after years of waiting.
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| Haiti, 2012 |
I met Barbie while teaching in Haiti in 2012 and spent a wonderful summer getting to know this amazing woman of faith. In our first conversation I discovered that she was in the process of adopting three teenagers from Haiti. No, that's not a typo, she was eagerly and enthusiastically pursuing the adoption of Daniel, Edeline, and Shelove, three remarkable Haitian teenagers. After years of struggling through seemingly endless barriers, nearly one year ago Barbie welcomed her "Haiti Three" home for good.
Yesterday, as we were celebrating the anniversary of their homecoming, I was reflecting on the ways that God works. Last summer I was visiting Daniel, Edeline, and Shelove at their Haitian orphanage and now I'm sitting and talking and laughing and worshipping with them in the loving shelter of their home in Connecticut.
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Haiti, 2013
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At the end of the party, Daniel led a time of worship and shared a devotional with us. He talked about Exodus and the Israelites who followed Moses out of Egypt only to question God's faithfulness when hardship came. Daniel, who at eighteen years old has experienced more pain, loss, and hardship than I can even begin to imagine, encouraged us to always have faith in God. In beautifully Creole-accented English, he pled with us to believe in God's work in our lives and to trust Him in all things.
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| Connecticut, 2014 |
During our first summer together in Haiti, Barbie shared with me her ideas about living open-handedly before the Lord. Here she was, a mom clearly called by God, who had no guarantee of when or if her children would ever be able to come home. As she shared about the different steps she was taking to move the adoption process forward, I was awed. I don't think I've ever fought for anything with such tenacity and unfailingly faith-filled determination. But it wasn't just her great struggle that caught me off guard, it was her way of trusting God in the process, in the unknown. I can still see her holding her hands open and outstretched as she talked about God's faithfulness and her belief that He would accomplish His will in His perfect timing. It was as if she were saying,
"Have Your way God.
Have Your way with these dear ones,
those whom I love more than my own life.
I'm trusting in You.
Even in the face of pain and confusion and uncertainty,
I'm trusting in You."
She wasn't gripping with tight fists, but was faithfully surrendering all to Christ. As I have seen God work in the life of Barbie and her kids, it is this surrender to God's work in spite of apparently insurmountable barriers that continues to intrigue me.
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| Haiti, 2012 |
Before making the drive to visit Barbie and the kids, I was chatting with a friend after church and our conversation about trials and thankfulness came around to an idea from the book Trusting God Even When Life Hurts. In the book, the author talks about life and history as if it were a detailed tapestry.
"...History is like a giant piece of fabric with very intricate and complex patterns. During the limited span of our lifetimes, we see only a tiny fraction of the pattern. Furthermore... we see the pattern from the underside. The underside of a weaving usually makes no sense. Even the upper side makes little sense if we view just a tiny piece. Only God sees the upper side, and only He sees the entire fabric with its complete pattern. Therefore we must trust Him to work out all of the details
to His glory and our good bound up together." ~Jerry Bridges
So often I find myself trying to make sense of the details and minutiae of life. I question why this had to happen or why that didn't happen as I expected. I look at the experiences of my life, the lives of those around me, and the greater world, and many times I'm left feeling very confused by what I see. I love picturing all of history as an intricate weaving. God sees and oversees the whole picture and nothing catches Him off guard. Instead, in a very beautiful way He is sovereignly pulling together all things for two great outcomes: His glory and our good. How amazing that these two are indeed "bound up together," that His glory and our good could be inextricably linked.
During the sermon on Sunday the issue of God's will came up. I laughed out loud when the preacher said, "Knowing God's will, oh bummer..." In a playful way he was demonstrating just how complicated this topic can be. He said what is so often true for me, that I view God's will as a complex and mysterious concept that generally exists just beyond my reach. Instead, passages like the first chapter of Colossians show us that God desires for us to know His will. He desires for us to know and trust Him. He wants us to look at His love and sacrifice, to see His grace and mercy, to believe in the freedom and forgiveness we have in Him, and to walk each day in faith in who He is. As was preached on Sunday, this walk of faith will keep eyes focused on Him and pour itself out in a spirit of endurance, patience, and thankfulness. God's will is this beautiful work of a weaver pulling together all things to create a story of such amazing grace that it will result in His being eternally glorified. And we, His children, will benefit forevermore from His goodness to us.
When I look at the story of Barbie and her kids, I see a little glimpse of the upper side of the tapestry that God is weaving. His work is so intricate and so perfect. I'm thankful for the opportunities to catch a passing view of the bigger picture.
Recently these big ideas seem to consume my heart and mind. Lately I've taken to climbing out on the roof at night to stare up at the stars. As I watch the stars in the night's sky, I am reminded that the same all-powerful and all-seeing God who put them in the heavens is taking our hurts and joys and questions and fears and all the mundane moments of our lives and weaving together a tapestry of history beyond our greatest of dreams. This weaving tells the story of redemption. So whether I can see the beauty of the pattern or not, I'm praying for faith to walk and live and love and serve fully in eager anticipation of that beautiful tapestry that He is weaving.
Thank you again for following along on this journey from Haiti to New Hampshire and places in between. The deeper spiritual truths revealed by these Haiti connections are a great blessing in my life and it is a true honor to be able to share them with you. Much love in Christ, Jessie
