Belong

It has happened a handful of times.

Always, we are sitting in the same places.

My little girl in her car seat chatting.

Me driving alone in the front seat.

She asks the same question, “Where is my real mama?”

You read books.  You listen to social workers well before this cherished little soul owns a place in your heart and you understand that this question might come.

No reading, no praying, no discussion gets you ready.

The social worker will also put the added spin to “not be shocked, or surprised or disappointed.”  When I get that mastered, I will let them know.

It is the most natural of questions.  We have told her of her country, her orphanage, her nannies.  We have told her of her journey.  We have told her of ours.  We have told her on the day that our paths intersected our hearts split open and heaven glued them back together.

The question begs something that we all want.

We all want to belong.

The first-year Psych student learns after food and water, after knowing we are safe and sheltered, our greatest need is to belong.

I believe with my whole heart the enemy uses the deception of isolation trying to contradict the amazing truth that we are grafted in to the greatest family.  If he can steal that, he can steal joy, and hope and grace.

We hunger to belong.

My little girl fiercely loves us; yet she knows part of her belongs to another country and a precious woman that sacrificed more than I will ever understand.

I honor that woman when I tell my little girl about her birth mama. We honor God when we remember we belong to Him. The devil will tell us we are alone, yet we are always, uncannily within the eyesight of the Divine.

Our tears moisten His cheeks.

Our sadness dampens His heart.

Our loneliness grieves Him.

Our joy warms His day.

Our love is felt in heaven.

Our weakness sends angels.

We belong because He created.

We are loved because He is love.

We are forgiven because he sacrificed.

We are adopted because a Father, never-ever forgets His child.

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:5