Seeing God in Them

Well, do you have a minute for some honesty? Here's the brutal truth. It has been a rough week around here. There was sickness. There was teething. There were tantrums. There were sunburns. There was crabbiness. And I can tell you what there definitely was NOT alot of... Patience. Well, that and sleep. Haha. But no, not alot of patience around here this week.

In my spare time, -which I have a bunch of, you know- I have been busy contacting any person I can think of who is involved with adoption, particularly Chinese adoption, particularly special needs Chinese adoption. I figure, the more connections I have and the bigger support network we have, the better. Anyway, one sweet adoptive mama responded to a previous e-mail from me this afternoon in the midst of some screaming and gnashing of teeth between my two dear children. She was very encouraging, and one little line struck me. She wrote, "I can look at [my daughter's] face and see God in her".

WOW! I spaced out for a minute thinking of that amazing day when I will be able to look at my Chinese child's face and see God. Sometimes I just can't wait to see the face of that beautiful child who God is going to match us with.

The fussing two children in my own living room jerked me back to today's reality. They are here. Now. I don't have to wait for my adopted child to see God. Sure, adoption is a beautiful picture of the gospel. But I can see God in the two I have now. They were created in His image. Even in our ugliest weeks, they are His. Jesus cared about the children. He had patience with them. They weren't a bother or an inconvenience to him.

I'm not perfect. There are always going to be bad weeks. I'm pretty darn sure I'm going to be praying to be better at patience for the rest of my life. But what I do to them, I do to Him. Would I treat someone else's children with the same annoyance and frustration I sometimes treat my own with? Would I treat Jesus with that same annoyance and frustration?

One day soon, I'm going to look at my beautiful son or daughter, the child we adopt, and I'm going to think of the story of how he came to our family, and I'll say "Wow. I see God in him". But today, and tomorrow, and the next day, I just hope I keep looking at my precious Gracie and Liam and seeing God there too. Because they are just babies, still learning how to express their own disappointments and frustrations and they are dealing with this crazy lady who is still learning how to be their mama. Here's to a better week and plenty of patience. For me and for my sweet babies.