Reasons to be hopeful

Isn't parenting exhausting?

I have a cousin who recently said she could have a whole litter of kids...cuz parenting so easy. I looked at her stunned for a few seconds...easy? Is she crazy?

I have never done anything so hard in my life. Nothing has ever made me so keenly aware of my flaws, limits and weaknesses, while forcing me to my knees on a daily basis...easy?

Maybe she and I aren't on the same planet.

I went through Ann Voskamp's "Jesse Tree" advent devotional with my kids this Christmas. Vintage Ann...very whispy and deep...maybe a little to ethereal for my kids cuz...

Everytime we got to the reading part, they were bored out of their minds. How many times now have they heard this story? Many! I could feel my blood start to burn hot as they disrespectfully would rest their heads on their hands and "endure" the scripture reading and the lovely life application. I felt like getting the spanky stick.

But a dear friend reminded me, "That's totally normal you know...and don't worry...God's word never returns void. "

I often wonder, especially about my 8 year old daughter....what is the substance of her relationship with the Lord? The girl is wild and loving and still giggles endlessly about toots and potty talk. How serious could this little one be about the Lord?

Well...yesterday I got a reason to hope.

My brown eyed girl met some kids on our block, kids who possibly come from a homelife that looks different from ours...a little rough...maybe a little more than little. The young boy was telling me how he had bet my girl that there were ghosts living in a vacant house next to his and he was on a mission to kill them. I sort of half expected him to pull out a cigarette and light it while we talked. Carly rode her new Christmas bike and played with these kids for hours.

When she came home she said, "Mom...they had never heard of God or Jesus...so I told them about Him. It wasn't going so well at first, but I talked to God about it and...well He helped me."

My daughter had her own encounter with God. She demonstrated her own relational ability with the God of the universe, the Lord I've been sharing with her since her infancy...the very same Lord whose birth story puts her to sleep.

"I talked to Him...and He helped me." Straight out of Psalms and straight out of my sassy girl's mouth.

I breathed a sigh of relief and joy...she really does have her own "real" relationship with Him. She reached out and He met her there...on her young girl's blue beach cruiser with kids from the hood.

Thanks God...I love gifts of hope.

What is redemption?

Sitting at a banquet for Bethany Christian Services, a Christian adoption agency, we heard the most amazing thing. We were there celebrating the one year anniversary of the adoption of our son. After 4 long years of infertility and the long road leading to adoption, we finally had our baby boy in our arms.

"Redemption", the banquest speaker, Rich Buhler said, "Redemption is in this room tonight. Bethany Christian Services is all about Redemption. Here's a definition of the word you may not have ever heard, but is more than fitting for what we celebrate tonight. "

"Redemption means...taking that which never should've happened and making it always planned."

We had to stop an marinate in that one...taking that which never should've happened...and making it ALWAYS PLANNED.

What shouldn't have happened...a single, teenage girl, having sex for possibly the first time, gets pregnant.....Always planned..our answered prayer...our baby boy in our arms.

Therein lies the mystery of God...our minds can hardly wrap ourselves around it...yet somehow in our souls it rings true...He is taking what shouldn't have happened and turning it into that which was always planned. It's what He's been up to since the fall of man.

Shouldn't have happened...Adam and Eve and that blasted tree and piece of fruit
Always planned....Christ comes in the form of a baby, walks this earth clothed in flesh, then dies a gruesome criminal's death...then is raised from the dead on the third day...for me, for you...for the whole world.

God is in the redemption business. Ann Voskamp says, "He is transfiguring all things back to glory...making the ugly...beautiful."

My life is this...taking things that never should've been and making them...always planned...redeemed. Taking that which is ugly and transfiguring it to glory...to the beautiful. It hurts a lot...and some days seem like there is no hope for all the ugliness to become a thing of beauty...that He really is taking all my failures, misfortunes, struggles, sins...and redeeming them.

But that's exactly what He is doing.

And like Job, though not nearly as wounded and stripped as he was, I don't know much, and I wasn't there when He formed the stars and put the planets in their rotation.

But if there's one thing Ido know...it is this

I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVES!