LoveReign
a Love Affair with a SoveReign God
February 10th, 2023
EMPTY NEST
I John 3:1-2, ‘Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! It’s true; we are His beloved children. And in the same way the world didn’t recognize Him, the world does not recognize us either. My loved ones, we have been adopted into God’s family; and we are officially His children now. The full picture of our destiny is not yet clear, but we know this much: when Jesus appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is.’
It had been years since she’d held an infant; a decade now since they whispered the word ‘children’ to one another. It was too painful for too long, too excruciating to hope, too agonizing to swallow the bitter pill that was theirs. In fact, they almost didn’t make it through that season, she thought wondrously, recalling the words stuck in her throat like a hairball for those ensuing years after they ‘gave up’. They almost quit on each other, she reminisced, now staring fondly at her husband across the warmly clad living room which made up their family den. He was sprawled on the floor in a patch of sunlight while two little boys climbed all over him like he was a jungle gym. She heard their giggles and her husband’s drawl of delight, and she gazed down at the baby in her own arms. She cooed, kicking a lazy foot while chewing on a delicious forefinger. In mere minutes, their mentor and friend was stopping by with something she wished to discuss with them, but they had already guessed what the questions considered. Were they able to accept any more children or were their hands too full already?
Like yesterday, the fullness of her hope and the raw emptiness of her womb conflicted inside her. She could remember how her heart throbbed like a leaded weight and she recalled how she hadn’t gotten out of bed except to use the bathroom for close to a week. All her friends eventually trailed away, and they declined any invitation to family affairs because no one wanted to feel bad when sisters and brothers were expecting…again! ‘Surprise! You’re going to be an auntie! Again!’ she grimaced at her recollection.
They should have afforded a mansion for the money they spent on fertility. They could have powered a nation with the hopes and dreams of the children they intended to birth. The harshest fact of all was the expectancy. Then the bitterness you conceived instead; it grew like a seed inside of you, ‘til full-grown, and when it was mature, it bore itself, and what you birthed, was a living and breathing thing you couldn’t help but nurture because it fed off you. There was a year she couldn’t recall, where they only went through the emotions of practicing life, speaking pat phrases, trying to float above it all.
~ We have all been there. That surprise announcement, an unexpected phone call, the unsuspecting person, a startling revelation, a tragic accident, the unforeseen, that sudden dread in the pit of our stomach, those words we never wanted to hear, the unknowing and the unraveling. What happens with the disappointments in the hands of an all-knowing, sovereign God? What is on the other side of the tarnished coin?
‘Look at you now!’ their friend uttered in sheer joy. ‘You both are naturals. These children need love and hope so badly, and here you are, with empty arms and vacant rooms just waiting to be filled up, just longing to overflow into little hearts.’ Tears sprang to her eyes as she glanced over at her husband’s watered down lashes too. It was impossible to have seen this back then. It was hard to even envision it now. But they sure had a whole lot to go around and nowhere to spend it, but to pour themselves into these lonely, hurting children so deserving of family and love and the gift of being cared for.
Psalm 68:6, ‘God sets the lonely in families.’ (NIV)
“When we feel like we are not good enough to be loved by God, we should remember that God’s love is greater than our doubts. We must silence the sounds of condemnation so we can hear the voice of God’s loving assurance and remember that He has selected us to be part of His family”. (The Voice, Bible Gateway)
