One of my heroes in life is Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch woman whose life of love and courage was made famous in the book and movie entitled, "The Hiding Place".
If you know the story, you'll remember that she and her family made the dangerous and fatal decision to hide Jews from the Nazis in war torn Holland in the 1940's. Her decision to answer the door when a desperate Jew knocked led her into the darkness of a concentration camp where she witnessed the death of her sister Betsie and so many others.
Little did she know that by answering that knock that she would be swept to far away places...and not just to Germany. Before her death, she circled the globe recounting her story and telling of God's love in the midst of suffering.
I think of Jen and wonder why her life started out the way it did. She didn't have the family I had or the opportunities either. Loved, for certain, but no mother or father to watch over her. No bright future to look forward to. No particular hopes that life would someday be different for her. Just the dream of being adopted, of belonging and being important to someone.
So with those thoughts, I look at this picture. Taken one month before her adoption referral pictures arrived on a Friday afternoon in our inbox. I see in this picture the face of child who has endured. A resilient child who can smile in the midst of circumstances that could have broken her. For 10 years she lived and waited. She had no idea when this picture was taken that just a month later two people in America would make a decision that would change the course of her life and theirs.
One of Corrie ten Boom's books was entitled "A Prisoner and Yet". This title comes to mind...not that Jen was a prisoner or that the orphanage was a bad place or that she was mistreated in any way. Quite to the contrary. But I would like to entitle this picture, "An Orphan and Yet". It is tribute to God and they way He moves...working and shaping our ends to His purposes. Jen was an orphan and yet God had designs for her life that would one day carry her to America and who knows where beyond that.
Like Corrie and Betsie, I hope that Jen can one day be a light for God in dark places. In the midst of sorrow, she too has known joy. And for that we are so grateful
1 comment:
Beautifully written Steven. I look at Jen's sweet face and I know in my heart that she will someday shine her light for Jesus . . . and I don't think that day is far off! God has done marvelous things bringing the three of you together and I know He has great things in store for His child . . . your Jen!
Blessings~
Tina
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