Road Trip Update
Three days, two national parks, 16 dirty diapers, a trip to the emergency room, and 5 gallons of coffee later - we have arrived! To say our road trip to New Jersey was an adventure would be an understatement. We are bone-tired, but we are suprisingly alive and ready for more. It’s a good thing we are - because we have many more days of travel ahead. For the next few days, we are visiting family in New Jersey, then we are off to Pennsylvania to celebrate The Fourth with 100 or so of my closest relatives.
God does unexpectedly awesome things in our lives when we are least able to take the credit for it. Last summer, I got an itch to find Jack’s birth mother, but I thought it would be almost impossible to do. The very night after we started our search, we were on the phone with her, laughing and crying and in awe of what God had orchestrated. Two weeks later, we made the trip to meet her for the first time. It was a sweet time, full not of regret, but joy. Things have gone so well in this new relationship that we are here visiting her again. It’s so natural, so real, that it’s hard to believe we haven’t known each other for a lifetime.
God is in the business of restoration. He took what looked like a hopeless situation and has worked it for His glory. When we are faithful to Him, He continuously seeks to bless us; yet these blessings, as awesome as they are to us, are not solely for our benefit. He blesses us to reflect His character to those around us. One of my favorite Scriptures is II Chronicles 16:9, which says: “The eyes of the Lord move to and fro about the whole earth, that He may strongly support those who are completely His” (also quoted in my “Big Sky Country” post). He longs to fill us with His glory so that we can reflect Him. As we reflect His glory, we bless those around us with hope, joy, life that only He can give.