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| little Adam perched on Raja’s back…his very favorite place |
Today we ventured back to the creek that Elliot and Rohan navigated and scouted out last week. This time, we packed a picnic dinner and wore our proper swimming gear. And best of all, we brought Adam!
It was that magical evening hour where the sun seems to lick creation and leave glimmers of gold on all that we see. Heaven meets earth and invites us out to see it. It is our choice in how we respond to the invitation.
Some people tend to think that Adam and his diagnosis may limit our adventures and explorations. I sometimes tend to think that too. But it is my loss of an eternal perspective and my forgetfulness of creativity that lead to such thoughts.
How so? Well, when I have an eternal perspective, convenience loses its meaning. Because convenience infers that I need ease and my preference in order to live an enjoyed life. So having a child whose needs may limit my convenience may infer that I am suffering. How can I check off a bucket list of dreams and ambitions and sights to be seen when I have a child who cannot walk and who needs sponge bathing and dressing changes every night?
I am a pilgrim hearted woman who loves a good journey. Give me a ticket into one country, a ticket departing out of another, a couple of bucks, and a jar of peanut butter and I am in my happy place. So how can I respond when my child gets sick and needs a doctor visit or a long hospitalization when I have so many “things to do”? Well, an eternal perspective kind of makes a paradigm shift to all those things. Did God place my nomadic spirit and love of travel and adventure within me? Yes. Does God love that about me? I believe so. But is that the meaning of a life? No.
Our life is not about filling ourselves up with instagram worthy pictures of sights seen. It is not about filling our homes with fading beauty. They are both good, but when they become our motivation for life, we stumble.
Life is not about being filled up.
But being poured out.
For He poured Himself out completely so that we could be filled. And He tells (not asks) us to love likewise.
I love a good adventure and I want to raise boys who love them too. But knowing Jesus is by far the greatest adventure. That is ultimately what I want my boys to know. I want them to wild and free, but I want them to know Holy Blood was spilled to fill them forever and that they do not have to seek fulfillment in any thing else. I want them to know that being poured out is so much more valuable than filling ourselves up with things that will fade.
And regarding creativity…it takes a little extra planning and packing to prepare to adventure with Adam. But goodness, is it worth it. Adam’s “disability” does not disable us. If anything, it enables us to see HIS (meaning God) ability to make beauty in the midst of brokenness.
Tonight, I will not dwell on disability.
Instead, I will fix my mind on
HIS ABILITY
To pour into Adam’s life abundantly
To pour into us so that we can pour out to others.
Let us not aim for anything else.
We cannot be dis-abled.
Because HE IS ABLE.
Tonight, I was reminded that the measure of a life is not how many peaks I summit or how many grand vacations I plan that may be interrupted by ill health in my fragile child. The measure of a life is that which is poured out. Let me not be filling my days with adventures and explorations that fade, but let me fill them with people and Him. They are the 2 things that never fade.
Some days we may not be able to creek stomp and picnic. Some evenings we may be in an ER praying for an answer. And other evenings, we may be able to venture far and wild and free. Those evenings are not enemies of one another. Both are beautiful and both are good. Both are gifts from Him.
Sometimes my Adam gives us a chance to have an even grander adventure. For if it was not for Adam needing to have a well shaded, flat surfaced space to rest in while we all galavanted in the water, we would have never walked past that bend in the creek to find the most perfect little picnic spot.
