Purim Moments...

....He makes the orphan a son and daughter ....

Singing those words in church today, a simple little line, so heavy with truth and significance, my heart felt like it could burst. 

Starting last night in the Philippines and carrying on today in the US, we are celebrating big on this March 12. We are first celebrating an incredibly special young man whom we already love more deeply than you can imagine. It's his 18th birthday today and the testimony of his life is so deeply powerful. God has His hands all over F's story and we are so blessed to get to see the rest of the chapters be written out.

The second thing we are celebrating is a God whose Promises will always be fulfilled. He is an on-time God. Today in church, they did "Be Still and Know" as the choir song and I couldn't stop myself from editing the words to past tense and personalizing them.

I tried all I could
And I didn't understand why things wouldn't turn out right
I tried all I knew
And still it seemed so hard to comprehend
That impossibility would become reality
When His voice spoke through my doubt and brought healing

Be still and know I am God
Be still and now I had it all in control
I did work like only I could do
Even in my trial He saw me through
Be still and know I am God

His Promise was clear from August 11 and it was fulfilled on March 3. We celebrate it today, on March 12, as our son turns 18 with a hope and a future.

Although we are not Jewish, there are some Jewish traditions and holidays that either I alone or our family acknowledges. One such holiday is Purim, the Jewish holiday that remembers the story of Esther and the preservation of the Jews from Haman's evil plot to destroy them. Esther has always held special meaning for our family, so much so that we even named our business after a verse in this story. I believe the most powerful message in that story is the promise of deliverance. There was never a question as to whether or not the Jews would be saved. Mordecai tells Esther, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?" (emphasis mine) Sometimes we feel more important than we really are. I think sometimes we even interpret the story of Esther to mean we are more essential than we are. God's work will be done. His answer will be delivered. But why would you not want to be His vessel? And maybe you are here in this place, at this time, for this action. 

Since I became aware of the story of our three new children, I have felt so strongly that our oldest is an Esther. (The very strong, manly version of her, of course. ;) ) Many of you know their story and for those who don't, one day with their permission, I will share it here. But he has been an instrument of deliverance for others, HE has been preserved for something big, and I am certain that God has a beautiful work for him in the future. So it was with great delight that I noticed when I checked the dates for Purim this year, that Purim fell on F's 18th birthday.... the birthday that A. may not have ever happened at all without God's deliverance and B. that may have meant a different ending to His story were it not for God's incredible Providence and miraculous timing. 

Our acknowledgement of Purim this year was the most incredible God-moment I could have imagined...the birthday of a son and the celebration of a new beginning for our family of 7. Only God brings stories like this into being. Only my Abba Father.