I have a story to tell. It goes backwards and forwards and drapes all over the place, and to me, it is incredible.
This story is triggered by an occurrence that happened today and many years ago. Today, I sent off an e-mail of congratulations to a supplier who's "out of office" auto reply had declared that she was not in the office due to maternity leave. I hadn't known she was expecting so I thought I would leave her a note to come back to the office to, "Maternity Leave? I had no idea! congrats!"
A little over a half hour later I got a reply from her that I had not anticipated. Apparently she had forgotten that she had turned on the auto reply at her office. More importantly she had forgotten what she had put in her auto reply.... Her son had complications at birth and lived for 3 days before God called him back home. That was back in August, she had yet to return to work and my e-mail was the first note she had gotten in awhile by someone not knowing the end of the little guys story.
If we stop a story like this right now, stop reading, stop listening, stop anticipating how God works for the good in all who love Him, then we miss so much of the story.
Many years ago, my wife and I sat before a Dr. who told us that we had better chances of winning the lottery than we had at having a child. This was after my wife had miscarried, tubal pregnancy that diminished our chances. Along with various other complications, the Dr. was spot on, our chances of winning the lottery were better than having a child, and we don't play. But the Dr. wasn't aware of something that we weren't aware of either, the author of our story wasn't and isn't done writing.
After absorbing the blow of such news, my wife and I looked into adoption. I'll tell that story some other day, this isn't an adoption story. This is a chain of events that you can't predict and will never see coming story.
Follow along, roughly the same time that doctor was telling us the likely hood of us having kids were slim to none, a troubled woman was making a decision she would pay heavy consequences for later on. While a doctor was telling us no chance, this woman was telling another man, other than her husband, that he would get a chance. While a doctor was telling us the odds of planting a seed, one was being planted in someone else.
Wise counsel interceded in the woman's life and told her that her best chances of healing her marriage were to not have a reminder of her infidelity crawling around. God interceded and told her that aborting the child within her was out of the question. God interceded in our lives and told us, "you are not my own but I adopted you into my family, now, I have another for you to adopt." The guiding hand of God brought a troubled woman trying to heal her marriage and an empty armed couple together. And our oldest son was born and became the first child in our family.
Here is where I jump off the page a little and go to another thought, but don't worry, I'll get back to this story, because it is all one big story anyways.
Last weekend I took my oldest son to the Nike Youth Sports Day event at the Nike Campus. It is a day dedicated to children and adults that are rather unique in the way God created them. My son got to participate in the swimming event. Yep, he got to swim in the Nike soft-water-open-your-eyes-under-the-water-because-its-so-clean-I-wonder-if-Michael-Phelps-swam-in-here pool. The south side of the pool is floor to ceiling glass walls that reveal one of the campus lawns. Very green fields where employees and others play and practice their soccer and running skills while developing the next best thing. This day the lawn was covered with over a hundred participants trying their hand, foot, and head, at soccer drills and lawn bowling. As I sat in the balcony of the aquatics center I couldn't help but take in the view of both the pool and all of its participants, the field, and then what I couldn't see going on over at the running track and indoor/outdoor basketball courts. (Yep, all events going on that day, a couple hundred participants in all) I couldn't help but be touched by a thought from the Lord. Every single one of those participants, staff, volunteers, were individually created, designed, by Him. Every single one of them. That means that each of the individual participants were purposefully created by Him to be what and who they are, every single one of them. Have you got the point that I am trying to say every single one of them. Each individual person that walks this earth was not randomly thrown together in a people factory in heaven, but individually and pain stakingly scrutinized and put together by the master artist and creator himself.
Another digression. I am going to admit something that will elicit more than one negative reaction, I like Harry Potter. There, I said it, I feel so relieved. The part that amazes me is how intricate and creative the author is. She has created a world and set of characters that have captured the eyes and minds of many readers. She has woven a tale that is deep and broad and very magical. (Yep that was put there on purpose) Ms. Rowlings has created a great set of novels over the past few years. I got hooked on her novels over semester breaks while going thru school. Her books could pull me from between the towers of boxes at the JC Penney warehouse for an hour each night, and push me into the halls of Hogwarts... Ok, I also like Ted Dekker, another incredibly intricate writer that weaves tales thru many of his books and into others. Both authors have created worlds and tales that envelope their readers. And this only in the course of a few years, maybe a decade. Whatever the timeframe, it is minor in comparison to the timeclock of eternity.
Regression, back to Nike. If two authors can create a cast of characters and new worlds of magic and mystery in the short time of a few years, imagine what the creator of the universe can weave together in the timeframe of eternity. Can you imagine the cast and plot upon plot? This is the thought that God stroked into my story as I stood there watching my son swim and others bobb around in the pool. Too many people look at that gathering on the Nike campus as the culmination of genetic randomness run amuck. I saw it as a gathering of some of the most incredible creations God could intricately craft together and unveil at the precise exact moment He wished for them to come onto the scene. See, its not the color or lack there of that makes an incredible masterpiece, its the way those colors are put together. Its not the notes that make a symphony, but the way they are combined to form a crescendo of sound and harmony that makes them incredible. We are God's masterpiece, each and every one of us is a precisely planned stroke, perfectly picked note, and exact set of words that He wants in his story. This is what we are.
Now, what author worth reading would create a cast of characters and not have a story for them to be inserted into? The author of our story is no different. A troubled woman made a decision, a troubled couple sought solace, and a child was born. And two families were brought together by an author who knows the whole play line by line. Had we stopped the story at the bad decision we would all have to ask, what is God thinking, why does He allow this? If we stopped at the news of the impossible we would have to ask, how could God do such a thing? But we keep reading, in anticipation that He has a bigger story to tell.
When our son was nine months old, we won the lottery. No we are not one of the rich and wealthy that got lucky trying our hand at such things. We have yet to buy a ticket. Nope, I was called up to the front atrium of the warehouse one afternoon to hear my wife tell me, "guess what?" And son number two entered stage left. He was nine months old when our luck struck again, "guess what?" And our daughter entered the scene stage right. During this time, unbeknownst to me, my supervisor at the warehouse was struggling with her news. One of those chances of winning the lottery announcements. Sometimes its hard to turn the page when that news hits. She knew of our plight to adopt after having received similar news. I didn't quite understand her reaction when I showed her the picture of the sonogram of the second baby (first to be born) in my wife's tummy. It wasn't until later when my wife bumped into her at a hospital that we came to understand that her knowing our story encouraged her thru the news in her story. (She now has two of her own.) Once again, had we stopped reading, we would have had to say hurray!, followed by another, "really God, really?why?" But we read on.
When our oldest was not quite three, another doctor told us that he was autistic. Is this where we stop reading? Or is this the part where the plot starts to thicken and things really start to get interesting? Up to this point my wife and I joked that the child that was supposed to be a mixed race baby that no one wanted ended up being a perfect blue eyed handsome little boy. Perfect. Was now autistic. How did our perfect little bundle become autistic? And I was troubled, God asked me, "I created him just for you, every stroke of hair and blush of his cheeks are for you, how is he anything less than perfect now that you know that he is a unique creation inspired after a millenia of thought and contemplation? You are right, he is not perfect, he is more than perfect. He is mine. Now take good care of each of them for they are all mine. And I am trusting you to show him my love until he is able to see it himself."
Right now, the supplier contact I spoke of earlier is wondering, really? Really God? why? why God? And her heart might want to close the book. You may have a similar story, and are also asking, really God? How could you? And all I can say is, don't stop reading, not yet, you haven't got to the good part, it's going to knock your socks off its so good. You see, the passage doesn't say that God only makes good things, it says that he makes all things good.
He penned together the story of a woman with child to add flavor to ours. He penned our story together to add encouragement to another. He added autism to my sons story to add a touch of grace and flavor and life to so many other stories. What is he writing in your story right now? Is it the end of a page, the end of a chapter, the end of the first book, or nearing the end of a series? Do you really know the answer to that question or will you let Him decide when its your turn to meet the author live and in person? Until then, every word, every stroke, every detail is on purpose.
