Divine Mathematics

4+2=6.  Very simple computation, yes?  Straightforward and uncomplicated...or that's what it might seem.  What if I were to tell you that the four represents a family that I know...my friends.  The two represents a sibling pair in Uganda...brother and sister and she is deaf.  Now, how simple does that answer of six look?  Consider what that harmless little addition symbol truly means....bringing that family of four together with the Ugandan Two.  The complexity increases rather significantly, doesn't it?  Of course, we're looking at this with our human brains which are limited.   Thankfully, God's not limited to the tidy little box we like to keep him in and here's a verse from Isaiah that perfectly illustrates this point:
"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.
      "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
      so my ways are higher than your ways
      and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."  Isaiah 55:8-9
So how does this happen?  I can tell you that it won't happen without God and you can take that to the bank!  It's a huge leap from the casual comment of "Oh!  I'd adopt them in a minute!" upon seeing their precious faces in a photograph to being on the ground, in country...sweating it out, risking food poisoning, water and insect borne illnesses and being stretched so far outside of your comfort zone that comfortable is no longer recognizable!  Red tape, budget cuts, good old fashioned bureaucracy...emotional exhaustion, financial strains, time zones and cultural barriers made the leap even more treacherous.  But leap they did...and this faith-filled foursome has been stretched beyond even the limits of Silly Putty!  Such faith and obedience does not go unrewarded, which is why the judge ruled in favor of Mimi and her hubby's petition to adopt these two darlings and why what used to be a family of four will now be a family of six.

When we truly surrender...when we get out of the way and let God do what he does best...amazing things can happen.  He tells us that He will give us the desires of our hearts.  During this journey, I have come to believe that Mimi and her family wanted to be used by God to make a difference but only for His glory...not for theirs.  I have no doubt of that.  I am curious, though, about the desires of the Ugandan Two.  Never having known anything but a life filled with abject poverty, hunger and uncertainty, did they hope for something better?  Were they born knowing that life was more than what they saw around them everyday?  They are so young, five and eight,maybe...we aren't exactly sure of their true ages.  Is it possible for ones so little to understand the plans that God has for them...good plans...hope filled plans?  She can't hear her new mama's voice.  He doesn't understand much English, but I wonder if the LORD sent his Holy Spirit to speak to these children in ways that only He could...in ways that only they would understand?  That's the only answer I have for bond like a three strand cord that she's formed with Mimi and Big Sister ...for him sleeping with his airplane every night and asking for Daddy and Big Brother everyday since they left to come back to Bamaham. 

I'm not a mathematician...by ANY stretch of the imagination.  I've never been good at it.  My strengths are more toward the verbal and the social.  If all story problems were like this one, though...I think I could have come to have a greater appreciation for computations.  This one has a happy ending and it was never really a problem...not for God, anyway.  I think I like this kind math is much more interesting than anything I ever learned from Houghton-Miflin!

Comments

  1. How about this equation...4+2+1? 'Cause God has to be in there, too!! :) She did email me and I hope they'll be on their way home soon!

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