A Time for Everything

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 
"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time for war and a time for peace."

What does today hold for you? Do you get to embrace, dance, have peace, keep?  Or are you at war, having to tear down, having to mourn?  No one will ever understand the depths of each season, in the same way that a foster parent does.  It is sobering to me that the same God who gives gentle rain and beautiful golden rays, sends tornadoes and earthquakes, hurricanes and drought. 

I'll never forget our first phone call.  It was about a baby girl.  Gestationally, she wasn't even supposed to be born.  Yet, she'd been in the world for almost three months, living in a plastic tub at the local Neonatal Intensive Care.  Love at first sight doesn't begin to describe what we felt.  A living, breathing angel; our dream come true.  This one was a miracle, weighing only one pound at birth.  No one was visiting this sweet girl and she had developed an aversion to touch after being poked and prodded day in, and day out.  No one seemed to care.  We slowly earned the trust of the entire nursing unit, sitting in for every feeding and changing, and holding her in between.  Her sweet smell, her bright eyes filled my heart, giving me motivation to lose sleep, and spend all day and half the night in a cold, sterile hospital.  

The room was never silent; beeping machines alarmed nurses to pending crises.  Infants cried almost relentlessly.  I couldn't believe that my touch and my voice could bring so much hope and life to this incredible child.  This was my first taste of foster care.  As the days passed, she went from tolerating minutes of touch, to craving hours of touch.  Minutes turned to days, then weeks.  It was almost time for her to come home.  She was even a potential adoption.  We really didn't think it could happen this fast.  I mean, I knew God was good, but could He be that good?

Until...the phone call.  I had raced home to do the hospital laundry, in between feedings.  While the wash was going, I laid down for a few minutes.  I instantly fell asleep.  Any mom of a small infant knows you take it whenever and wherever you can get it!  I almost missed the call.  The ring sounded surreal in my dreams.  "Hello?", I muttered.  "Yes, Eunice? This is the baby's social worker.  I just wanted you to know that a family member has stepped forward and will be meeting the baby tonight.  This afternoon will be your last visit.  Thank you so much for all you've done."  So, after three months of laying in a plastic tub, someone finally decided to care?  I was stunned.  The nurses cried when they found out she wasn't going home with us.  Her only attachment in the entire world was now leaving her.  I couldn't comprehend saying goodbye.  How many of you have had a placement end abruptly?

Is God only good when things turn out the way we hope? 

Little did I know that this feeling would become a way of life, as a foster parent.  Embracing a young life in it's entirety, and in an instant; and then letting it go just as sharply.  To this day, when I walk into a hospital or smell medical soap, I go right back to that sweet baby girl.  Our first.  That season was so beautiful.  It was timeless.

Choose a moment today and breathe it in.  Thank the Creator for giving you this season.  Maybe to some, the air will threaten to strangle you with fear as you attempt to pause. Know that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. He is the head over all things and He reigns supreme (Colossians 1:15-20). This season, if the branches are bare and the wind is bitterly cold, know that He is the same Father that will bring the warm embrace of the sunshine, again.

Jesus, we thank you for all that you give us. We know you don't waste anything in our lives. Thank you that, in everything, you are working things out for our good (Romans 8:28). We ask that you would move in our lives. Please turn our eyes to you. Help us to see where you are in the circumstances of our lives, and to be thankful for what we have in you. We ask that, as we go to you with thanksgiving in our hearts and offer supplications and petitions for our foster children, that you would move mightily. We also ask that you would send us peace that overwhelms the fear and the uncertainty. Please keep our hearts and minds safely in You. In Your Name, Amen. 

~A poem of Seasons ~
Thank you for the soft, kind breeze
Blowing curls near small, red cheeks

Thank you for the sunshine, mild
That fell so perfect on that child

Thank you for the long, tense nights
They point me to the only Light

Thank you for the strength to pray
Without it, she may have died that day

Thank you for the water, warm
Washing tear-stained, tired & worn

Thank you for the last "bye" kiss
We know nothing, by You, is missed

Thank you for this moment, now
To reconstruct, time won't allow

~E.S.