It was 2:00 on a rainy Wednesday morning. The phone rang and, as is often the case with middle of the night phone calls, worry hit first. We missed the first call, but moments later another came and the voice on the other line asked if we’d care for a 3 month old little boy.
Taken from his home in the middle of the night, they needed someplace to take him.
As we lay in bed that night waiting for a knock on the door, our minds went into overdrive. What did we need to do to prepare for the arrival of an infant? Looking back, it's comical--we had no idea there was nothing we could do to prepare for the arrival of this particular infant! We quieted after a few minutes, and I watched the shadow of the ceiling fan bounce from the reflection of the moon.
I had a nagging feeling that I needed to pull out some notes I’d jotted a few hours before as I read in Mark 1. I resisted the urge for a few minutes reasoning that I needed rest—that Eric was trying to sleep. After a few minutes, I grabbed my Bible from the floor beside my bed, and in the glow of my cell phone looked for what the Holy Spirit wanted me to see. Jotted in my notes was the word “compassion” with the reference, Mark 1:41. I glanced over in my Bible and read the story of Jesus healing a leper; verse 41:
“Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing…”
The Holy Spirit's voice was clear: we’d been given compassion by a God who values the orphan and a willingness to obey what He’d asked of us nearly a year earlier—to open our home in foster care. I identified, on some level, with Christ compassion for that leper and His willingness to help him.
As we lay in bed that night waiting for a knock on the door, our minds went into overdrive. What did we need to do to prepare for the arrival of an infant? Looking back, it's comical--we had no idea there was nothing we could do to prepare for the arrival of this particular infant! We quieted after a few minutes, and I watched the shadow of the ceiling fan bounce from the reflection of the moon.
I had a nagging feeling that I needed to pull out some notes I’d jotted a few hours before as I read in Mark 1. I resisted the urge for a few minutes reasoning that I needed rest—that Eric was trying to sleep. After a few minutes, I grabbed my Bible from the floor beside my bed, and in the glow of my cell phone looked for what the Holy Spirit wanted me to see. Jotted in my notes was the word “compassion” with the reference, Mark 1:41. I glanced over in my Bible and read the story of Jesus healing a leper; verse 41:
“Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing…”
The Holy Spirit's voice was clear: we’d been given compassion by a God who values the orphan and a willingness to obey what He’d asked of us nearly a year earlier—to open our home in foster care. I identified, on some level, with Christ compassion for that leper and His willingness to help him.
It was relationship with Him in a very real way.
In that quiet moment, I rested in that.
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