Understanding Him.....

Isaiah 55:8-9

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Understanding......
As I think about today my heart is filled with so many different emotions.  My heart and love for these two little boys grows and grows.  As I spend more time with them and experience their nature and personalities I am absolutely in awe of how God's plans are so so very perfect.  These two little guys become more familiar to me each and every time I see them.  I told Roger today that they are so much like our other boys! Really they are "Hebbe boys". How I can love them as I do, I do not understand. The only explanation that my limited thinking mind can come up with is that it is only because He first loved me.....He showed me His love, because of this.... I can love them in such a whirlwind of circumstances.  He placed this love in my heart that is not limited by geography, culture or biology.

Isn't that just incredible!  It should make each of us fall on our knees when we realize and experience God's perfect love in our lives.  He, in a way that we cannot even begin to comprehend, showers us with His love! His all out and crazy love for each of us.  His love is a love that does not compare.  This love is purposeful. This love is intentional. This love is freeing. This love is overflowing.  This love is grace-giving. This love is forgiving. This love is deep and wide. This love is never ending.  This love is free!

Ephesians 3:14-19

 For this reason I kneel before the Father,  from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,  may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,  and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

God's love knows no boundaries.  He has placed this same love for these two boys in another mother.  Their foster mom, as well as the whole family, loves the boys this same way!  I knew from our first meeting that this family was sold out for these boys.  Every question and concern I had were completely wiped away.  I see a deep and genuine love for the boys from their whole family.  They have one son, he is in 10th grade.  The foster father's mother also lives with them.  A nice and caring family.

(See how God's plans are always best.  I am humbled by God's grace in my life.  The grace that He provided me when I didn't "understand" or "know" why things were happening the way they were.  And thought I NEEDED to know. Oh how quickly my eyes can look away from Jesus and search the waters below my feet.  Just like Peter.  Then He saves me from myself with His grace.) 


After our time with the boys today we drove them back to the foster family's home.  What a blessing it was to drive from the city to, and through the many small villages in the country.  It was almost as if we were transported back in time.... but then again, not really.  In some ways the things we saw were so much like what you might see in movies like "Fiddler on the Roof" or "Willy Wonka", but then all of a sudden a Volkswagon  Jetta would speed past you on this small country road!  Or you would see men out in the fields tending to their sheep and then see someone walking by with an I Phone next to their ear.  But really, I loved seeing all of these small villages.  We drove to the foster family's home in one such small village.  All along the roads you can see groups of people just talking.  Old people, young people and even those in-between. I wonder what they are all talking about! I wish I could pull up a chair and listen to their conversations.  If the buildings and roads could talk what a tale they would tell.

When we arrived at their home we were greeted by all of the family, except father as he was not home.  But honestly, they treated us as if we were royalty.  Kindly showing us the boys home and the 2 different rooms they sleep in.  One for the colder months just past and the one for the warm summer months they are entering into.  Their home was warm... from the love that is there between them.  Their son was eager to show us that they can Skype with us to keep in touch in between trips for the boys.  A very nice and respectful young man.  But perhaps the most intense feeling I got was from the "mother in law" the gramma!  She met me and immediately put my face in her two, hard working worn, full of history hands!  She teared up and pulled me close to her and kissed me! It seemed as though she wanted to thank me and bless me and tell me how much she wanted me to take care of and love "her boys".  She was seriously, a precious gem. She is someone that didn't really speak any words to me that I could understand, yet I totally "got her". It was as if we both "understood" each other.  We shared a love for those boys .... she knew it and I knew it.  Again, only because of God can we feel like we are or have been long connected when in fact we have just met. 

So at the end of the day we know that we are more than blessed to be a part of a love that knows no boundaries.  We are a part of a plan that involves 2 families who live 1,000's of miles apart from each other and their love for two special little boys. We are privileged to be united in love for two special little boys.  We are humbled to know that He chose our families to join together to care for the orphan.  But why He does what He does...... it is all for good, regardless of how much we in our tiny human minds, understand!

Psalm 68:5-7

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
    is God in his holy dwelling.
 God sets the lonely in families,
    he leads out the prisoners with singing;
    but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

In His Embrace,
laurie