God's Eternal Family is Interracial

This image by Norman Rockwell has certainly taken on new meaning for us in the past 4 years. Adding a child from Guatemala and now China into our existing brood has changed the legacy of the Freeman family into an interracial one, forever. To say the least, being conservative Christians in the deep south adds a bit of irony to the story! Christianity in the deep south juxtaposed with deep rooted conservative racial views makes for some interesting looks and conversations some days. Note that I didn't say racism, but conservative racial views, I believe these can be mutually exclusive and not necessarily the same thing. 

Thankfully we live in a community that seems to have begun taking Jesus' calling of pure religion (James 1:27) at face value and not a mere suggestion. Every time we go to the pool it seems we run into another interracial family that has opened their hearts and home to an orphan or two from the far reaches of the globe. Of course this could be that new car purchase anomaly. You know the one where just about the time you've made a final decision on the type of car you want to purchase (or have just purchased), you all of the sudden become keenly aware of  how many of the same make/model are on the road already? I never paid attention or noticed how many of those old (late 80's, early 90's), white, 4 door, Toyota Corolla's were on the road until I had to drive one for several years. All of the sudden they were EVERYWHERE! It became known as the poor teacher/professor mobile in several circles of mine. 

I'd like to think it's more than this though. I'd like to think that Christians at large, especially those with "means" and access to resources are finally waking up and realizing we haven't been using what God has provided us wisely, or at all correctly for that matter. If we are adopted into God's interracial family, why would we hesitate to do the same with our family? I recently heard someone say that many people are certain to have a rude awakening when they get to heaven and realize those _____ people (fill in whatever race you want) are here too?!

Mine, MIne, Mine, Can it be all Mine?

 If your kids are anything like ours, this scene from Finding Nemo seems to play itself out nearly every day in our house! This seems to become exponentially true the larger the quiver of children. It has always been part of raising kids and dealing with who has what and what is fair for each of them depending on their ages and maturity level. It has come to the forefront even more since Fisher joined the ranks 5 months ago.

He is 3 years old and in serious competition with his 5 year old brother for everything! Every object in the house, even this silly pink hat of his mothers, becomes a conversation around, "can it be mine, all mine?" Of course we initially go down the path, of no that belongs to so and so, or no we all share that, etc... Only to be met with a few more pleas of mine, mine, mine, can it be all mine?

At times we are left contemplating is he just being a typically selfish 3 year old, or he is outwardly expressing some repressed feelings of belonging? Does he have a deep rooted need to "know" that something is his and his only for the first time in his life, or is he just wanting everything to be his, as is our sin nature?

Needless to say we try to find a balance between feeding his selfish nature to control everything, and everyone, versus his need to have comfort and ownership and control of something given the first 3 years of his life has had only a modicum of these things. This wasn't really an issue with Eli as he joined at us at such a young age and his age difference to the next sibling. We'll keep doing our best to balance hard wired longings due to his circumstances and normal toddler aged behavior. In the mean time, I'll keep trying to laugh as I envision the birds from Nemo attempting to make everything edible, theirs, and only theirs.

...unless you turn and become like children...

I had the opportunity to see Matthew 18 up close and personal today. Several families in our Sunday school class have been organizing some items for what had been a homeless mom and three boys, attempting to get out of a bad family situation. This morning was the day they were moving into a rent free apartment that had been procured for at least the next 4 months or so.

Melissa and I had been saying for quite some time now we needed to have a serious garage sale and find a way to donate the money. This is always one of those task that sounds excellent in principle until it comes to actually organizing it, planning the date, putting an add in the paper, pricing everything, deciding what actually should be up for sale, etc... Whew, it's tiring just writing out what needs to take place. Then there is the whole back and forth of what should be drug into the driveway for the general public to rummage through. This is never fun as the merits and value of every item has to be discussed/argued, reminisced about (oh, remember that one day that was used for one time, and it was so sweet how the kids....) until I am ready to turn the garage sale into an estate sale, put a price on everything, and just see what happens.

After much procrastination and good intentions, like those of getting up early and going to the gym but just not quite getting there, God put us out of our misery. I guess since we were dilly dallying around so long about selling this stuff and donating the $$, He decided to simply march a family in need directly into our paths, hard to ignore those signs. We were able to contribute a fare amount of stuff to furnish their empty apartment this morning, I don't think they had much more than the clothes they were wearing.

It was good to see a handful of families we know all there pitching in along with a plethora of children there to help as well and play with the three boys moving in. It was so refreshing to watch the kids interact, both in wanting to help and interact with the three boys. It was as if they had known them forever and it was merely a family reunion with cousins. At one point there were a scattering of black, white, Chinese, and Guatemalan children ranging in age from 5 to 14, carrying items and playing like crazy together.

Not once did I ever see any of them pause as if to question each other's motives, intentions, thoughts, or hesitate to engage. At one point, Dutch broke into sharing about Jesus' love for him and them as well in the midst of just hopping through the apartment. While all of us adults know we were doing the right thing by attempting to provide for this families physical needs, leave it to one of the children to attempt and provide for their spiritual needs.

It was a great example of Matthew 18:1-6. It was a great reminder of how we should have a faith more like our children and refreshing to learn once again, we are all created in the image of God and His love is not spared for only those who look or act deserving.

Love Hate Relationship

I love my children, but I hate the destructive power of 5 that can inevitably demolish what we had just recently cleaned and/or picked up. The speed and voracity rivals the best of any SEC top notch defense (maybe Auburn will have more of this in the coming months). The cacophony of noise that rains down from all corners of the house during a full weekend of everyone being home is enough at times for me to simply wish to walk out the front door and melt into the draining heat.

While I am far from a type A personality, I do like order and believe things have a place, and that usually doesn't mean any randomly open spot on the floor throughout the house (i.e. How/why in the world is "this" in my bathroom!?). The real irony here is that it doesn't bother my wife too much, go figure. Maybe it's the math/physics background in me, every variable has a purpose and everything in nature has a formulaic approach to it and the study of chaos theory doesn't apply to household order/disorder.

The good news is I truly believe the kids all feel safe and comfortable and can explore their personalities in a loving environment. I also take comfort that eventually (hopefully before they all are put to bed tonight) they will chip in, do their part, and restore some order to the two days of playing, frolicking, fighting, fussing, laughing, and loving on each other to awaken tomorrow to a new week and some space to walk through the house without worrying about breaking my ankle.