God has used my adopted children to teach me even as I have been trying to teach them. One of the most powerful lessons God gave me was something that occurred before we arrived in Ukraine.
When Stephen, my precious son, learned that there was an American family that was going to adopt him, he immediately began giving away his possessions, including several expensive gifts he had previously received from the missionaries who told him we were coming. He gave away his bicycle. He gave away his personal CD player. He began giving things away, because he believed the word of promise. The missionaries had been trustworthy in the past. So when they said we were coming to take him to our home, he believed them.
Stephen had never seen me. He had never seen his mom. He believed. He believed the promise. Based on that faith, he was ready to part with things that had previously been dear to him. Stephen joyously gave to others what had previously been important to him, because he knew he was going to a better place and he wasn’t going to need those things anymore.
God said to me, “Do you get it, Jim? Do you really believe the word of promise? Do you really believe that you’re now part of a new family? Do you believe that there’s One who is coming to get you and take you to a better place, so that now you can go ahead and start giving away what you thought you had to hold onto? The things that brought you pleasure? The things that brought you joy? The things that made you feel important? You can give it away when you know you’re going somewhere better.” (John 14:1-3)
The first night I met Stephen at the orphanage, I told him through the translator, “I want you to know that by God’s grace I will give you anything you need, but I will not give you everything you ask for. I’m going to decide what I think is best for you. There will be some things that you will want, and I will say no, but it’s not because I don’t love you, and it’s not because we don’t have the resources. It’s because I want what’s best for you. I won’t always get it right, but I want you to understand that I will answer your requests based on what I believe is best. You’ll never have to do without something you need again.”
I could make that kind of commitment to my child, because my Father has made that kind of commitment to me. He has already promised that I will have everything I need. Jesus says:
“Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:25-34
