Recent God Sightings (Part 1)

I've been dying to tell you about 2 amazing things God did for us recently.  As we sought His will about whether or not we should adopt W, He blew our socks off!  Today, I'm gonna tell ya about those 2 things. 

Both Eric and I can say that we have experienced many, many "God sightings" in our life together as Christ-followers.  Being in vocational ministry together seems to have increased our "sightings" as we've had a front row seat to God working in the lives of people in our church and community.

In early 2006, when we first stepped onto the Road of Adoption, our personal God sightings increased tenfold.  We have seen Him open tightly locked doors--plowing a Red Sea path through bureaucratic red tape.  When our financial fields were empty, we have been on the receiving end of manna from Heaven.  And the times when our spirits were dry, our hearts were hurting or we were tempted to doubt, our Heavenly Father watered our souls and filled us with His peace. 

Adoption changed our view of life, family, parenting, Christianity...and God Himself.  Previously, we felt confident in our understanding of God's Salvation Plan:  A "child" lost in sin would receive the free gift of eternal life through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and His resurrection.  We had both been walking with God for many years.  We loved Him and felt we knew Him well.

Then we adopted our first child.

A child we had never met was placed in our arms.  In an instant, a child without a family became a daughter.  She came to us with a past and 18 months of life experience.  She instantly went from orphan status to "the daughter of Eric and Jennifer Johnson" and our name became her name.  We did not know her, but in the instant she became our daughter, all of our love was hers...forever.

Our Heavenly Father does that for us-- 

--Even though we have no claim on Him.  Even thought we come to Him with dark and hurting places, hopeless and broken places.  In spite of this, He gives us all of His perfect love.  He adopts us and calls us His own. 

"So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father."' Romans 8:15

When you or I accept God's love--in an instant--we are His child and that becomes our new name!  We become a dearly loved and cherished child with a Father, an inheritance and an eternal home with Him in heaven!

Having received our child, we began to truly understand.  Eric and I had experienced for ourselves God's perfect Plan of Adoption.  Through our adoption of Noelle and later Selah, our own salvation came alive in ways we hadn't yet encountered.  Our walk with Him was richer, fuller, deeper.  Our hearts beat with His and our eyes were opened to see people and situations in new ways.  We began to see God's hand at work all over the place!  Yes, we had been witnesses to God's amazing acts before this time, but now our spiritual eyes had been opened wide.  And you know what else?  Our faith grew like crazy!! :) 

Now we were ready for God to really show off. :-D

And boy did He!!  In every phase, of every adoption, even the failed adoptions (yeah-we had some of those), God worked in our lives and in the lives of those around us.  He provided in unimaginable ways.  He opened impossible doors.  He tested our faith (and the faith of the people around us) and strrrrrrrrrretched us, then grew our faith.  People-- God is at work!!  He is always working things together "for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28  In our lives, He used adoption (He still is!) to be the impetus of our deeper faith-walk with Him. 

What is God using in your life to bring you into a closer, faith-filled walk with Him?
 
In the next post, I dive right into just two of the super cool things God did to give us confirmation that we should adopt W.  Love it!!  (I'm writing that post now...hope to post it soon... ;-))