A Time for Everything

A couple of weeks ago, Ian and I taught a lesson to the children at our church. Quite honestly, we had forgotten that it was our week to teach and we arrived with no lesson in hand. I am glad that we serve a God who is always prepared, though, for He had placed a verse on my heart for quite some time and I was able to pull it out and pass it on to the little ones. Having mulled the verse over for days, it was like an overflowing fountain, and the lesson was planned in a few minutes, with activities, and easily executed. How I wish all of my teaching was so easily prepped for!

That verse has continued to resonate within my heart...

There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Oh, so cliché! This verse is probably used at the turn of every season, at every graduation ceremony - it is even a rock song.

But when God breathes a verse into our hearts, minds and souls, it does not matter if it is the most oft-quoted verse in all of time. It is full of life and has great depth of meaning. It emerges fresh and new - ready to inspire, comfort, lead. This verse revealed a facet of God I had not seen before - or perhaps just never really looked at, as it was there all along.

For me, it is linked to the story of a woman lost in the desert, fleeing from a hopeless situation, dying of thirst, running from the sight of her dying son in anguish. Hagar had a life-changing, life-restoring, life-repurposing encounter with God. God met her need, gave her back her son, and gave her a vision and a purpose for her future that would help her endure the season of difficulty to which God asked her to return. It was then that God was given a name that revealed His loving and all-knowing character towards those of us who are caught in the chaos of this world. The God Who Sees!

The God Who Sees - He sees our anguish, our desperate need, the things that hurt so much we just cannot face them. He sees the hopeless, difficult situations we exist in, our broken dreams, and how sometimes we just want to lay down and die.

He doesn't just see our troubles - He lived them. He knows each ache and pain we experience. He knows the seasons of human life... and death. He knows the bitter chaos that consumes our world.

What a relief to know that He appoints a time for each sorrowful season to end, with times of refreshing, times of joy to match the times of sorrow! What a comfort to know that He has also appointed a purpose to each time... our endurance of difficulties will transform us into overcomers, with strength, joy, and patience for the next level of His work for us/in us! God sees each of us in our circumstances and has planned fulfillment for our needs, answers of hope for our despairs, a vision and a purpose for our future, and has allotted us strength for each step of our way out of the desert. All because of His love for us!

For us, the season that Ian and I are facing now is relatively easy - we are simply asked to do mountains of paperwork, raise a ransom to free our beloved child from the orphanage and a life of fatherlessness, and jump through seemingly endless bureaucratic hoops. The strength for these tasks has already been provided - we have been promised all that we need to accomplish our calling. We are merely asked to persevere on the long road to adoptive parenthood, step after step, mile after long mile. It feels hard though, but, yes, we are learning patience, to lean on God's strength and promise, and are learning to trust that God will fulfill our heart's desire for a child.

We have hope that God will bring this season to an end soon! We will hold our kiddo in our arms - soon! We also have the promise that while we work and wait, God is working good things - in us, in our child, and in our community. We are learning the heart of God for the fatherless, our child's heart is being prepared for our family, people are watching the God Who Sees in action and thinking, "Maybe God sees me and my circumstances too", or "Maybe there is hope in the midst of my suffering!" or "Hey, maybe I could step out in faith too!"  The answer to all of these "maybes" is "Yes" and "Amen"!