Overwhelmed by Christmas?
What a good word to describe many of us during the Christmas season, huh? We are overwhelmed in many ways...overwhelmed that God has given us the task (and has he ever!) to raise 3 wild, strong in every way, persistent, precious children to be like Jesus...overwhelmed by how our kitchen floor looks like it’s never ever been mopped, though it was just yesterday...that my grocery cart looks like I am feeding an NBA team of 5 (but really it’s the Digsby crew of 5 - equivalent in calorie-intake and expenditure)...overwhelmed that God has provided for our every expense over the past 2 years...that our 2 year old daughter (2 as of last Friday) waited to cut a mouthful of teeth until she had a Mommy and Daddy to love her through it...I am overwhelmed by Thomas’s deep insight and his boldness to convince everyone how profoundly “right” he is, by Austin’s agility, determination and cuddle-power, by Elita’s perfect fit into our family (how did she get our genes across the world?)...overwhelmed that 24 hours in the day go by so fast that our baby turned 2 before we’d even known her a year...overwhelmed by my weaknesses and my lack without calling on Jesus every second of every day...the Lord used the perfect recipe, the truth-serum of circumstance if you will, to get me to admit something that has been true all along, “I, Sohailla Digsby, confess that I am weak...and overwhelmed.”
Above all, I pray that I would be MOST overwhelmed by CHRISTMAS...not by the shopping with 3 kids asking me questions at the same time, or by holiday crafts with the toddler anthem of “no, no, no” underfoot and the background music of Elita crumpling her brother’s holiday artwork, but overwhelmed to the point of AWE...by JESUS. By the Father sending forth his Son so that we might be able to call Him “Daddy.” I hear Elita say that name all day...when she wakes up, when she sees anyone’s cell phone and demands to call her Daddy on it, when she sees pictures of her Daddy around the house who she had never seen until 9 months ago. (She does the same for Mommy). She didn’t do that in China - ask her Daddy how it hurt at first for her to ignore his love after his many months of sacrifice and pursuit of her.
Adoption takes sacrifice - Jesus would know best. We would never be able to enter the sweet presence of our own perfect Father as his sons and daughters but for His sacrifice. I can relate at a new, deeper level this year. I am reminded how greatly God sacrificed. And even though we celebrate with lights and gifts what He has done for us in Jesus, we still force Him to pursue us...and though we long for His security, somehow in our immaturity, we resist him getting his arms around us at times. He could just bear-hug us until we give in, but instead he takes time with us, loving us tenderly and relentlessly until we realize He is the only One worth running to! No wonder He doesn’t just demand that we accept Him...when we put our arms out to Elita and wait for her to come to us, knowing where she’s been, what a JOY it is when she comes on her own with a smile, and outstretched arms.
Our Father, too, knows where we’ve been. He knows we’ve been schooled by the world and it has neglected our true needs, as that of an orphan. He knows our insecurities. He sees how we avoid him while He pursues...He sacrificed anyway. If you let him love on you, let Him call you his child, though love this real may seem foreign at times, you might find yourself looking like him before you know it - and people recognizing you as One of His own. You are! Overwhelmed by Christmas? I pray we are!
Merry Christmas to you and yours! Hugs, and prayers for a blessed 2012!
Tom, Sohailla, Thomas (8), Austin (5), and Elita (2)
Overwhelmed by Christmas?
What a good word to describe many of us during the Christmas season, huh? We are overwhelmed in many ways...overwhelmed that God has given us the task (and has he ever!) to raise 3 wild, strong in every way, persistent, precious children to be like Jesus...overwhelmed by how our kitchen floor looks like it’s never ever been mopped, though it was just yesterday...that my grocery cart looks like I am feeding an NBA team of 5 (but really it’s the Digsby crew of 5 - equivalent in calorie-intake and expenditure)...overwhelmed that God has provided for our every expense over the past 2 years...that our 2 year old daughter (2 as of last Friday) waited to cut a mouthful of teeth until she had a Mommy and Daddy to love her through it...I am overwhelmed by Thomas’s deep insight and his boldness to convince everyone how profoundly “right” he is, by Austin’s agility, determination and cuddle-power, by Elita’s perfect fit into our family (how did she get our genes across the world?)...overwhelmed that 24 hours in the day go by so fast that our baby turned 2 before we’d even known her a year...overwhelmed by my weaknesses and my lack without calling on Jesus every second of every day...the Lord used the perfect recipe, the truth-serum of circumstance if you will, to get me to admit something that has been true all along, “I, Sohailla Digsby, confess that I am weak...and overwhelmed.”
Above all, I pray that I would be MOST overwhelmed by CHRISTMAS...not by the shopping with 3 kids asking me questions at the same time, or by holiday crafts with the toddler anthem of “no, no, no” underfoot and the background music of Elita crumpling her brother’s holiday artwork, but overwhelmed to the point of AWE...by JESUS. By the Father sending forth his Son so that we might be able to call Him “Daddy.” I hear Elita say that name all day...when she wakes up, when she sees anyone’s cell phone and demands to call her Daddy on it, when she sees pictures of her Daddy around the house who she had never seen until 9 months ago. (She does the same for Mommy). She didn’t do that in China - ask her Daddy how it hurt at first for her to ignore his love after his many months of sacrifice and pursuit of her.
Adoption takes sacrifice - Jesus would know best. We would never be able to enter the sweet presence of our own perfect Father as his sons and daughters but for His sacrifice. I can relate at a new, deeper level this year. I am reminded how greatly God sacrificed. And even though we celebrate with lights and gifts what He has done for us in Jesus, we still force Him to pursue us...and though we long for His security, somehow in our immaturity, we resist him getting his arms around us at times. He could just bear-hug us until we give in, but instead he takes time with us, loving us tenderly and relentlessly until we realize He is the only One worth running to! No wonder He doesn’t just demand that we accept Him...when we put our arms out to Elita and wait for her to come to us, knowing where she’s been, what a JOY it is when she comes on her own with a smile, and outstretched arms.
Our Father, too, knows where we’ve been. He knows we’ve been schooled by the world and it has neglected our true needs, as that of an orphan. He knows our insecurities. He sees how we avoid him while He pursues...He sacrificed anyway. If you let him love on you, let Him call you his child, though love this real may seem foreign at times, you might find yourself looking like him before you know it - and people recognizing you as One of His own. You are! Overwhelmed by Christmas? I pray we are!
Merry Christmas to you and yours! Hugs, and prayers for a blessed 2012!
Tom, Sohailla, Thomas (8), Austin (5), and Elita (2)
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