Living Water

Earth shifting beneath my feet.

Over the last year, I have have felt more and more moved by the Holy Spirit towards conservative Quakerism. A large part of that has to do with my wife. When I was accountable only to myself, I could hold Christ in my heart in the midst of a more secularly-focused meeting.

I have a harder time asking my wife, who comes from a Missouri Synod Lutheran background, to do the same.

But now that we are adopting a child (photos), who in her formative years will not have the wherewithal to separate the Christ-laden wheat from the secular, politcal chaff, I feel a great responsibility to see the influence of the Christ Jesus in our home.

I feel the Lord's hand in this adoption, which has proceeded much more quickly than any adoption I have ever heard of before. In Wisconsin, you must be certified as foster parents before adopting (kind of like a regulatory quality control process). Our home study and red tape were not even signed, sealed and delivered when LCFS called to let us know they had a child in their care and a birth mother who wanted to meet with us the following night. The young lady had already met with two adoptive families, but the following week we got the call.

Faith (the birth mother named her, and we are obviously keeping that name) is now a month old and will be under our roof as of the 29th of this month. We were hunkered down for a wait of months or years -- which is par for the course -- but a way opened for us. The waters may part for some in a miraculous fashion. The stone may roll away, the skies may open and the Lord himself appear. We all have our miracles if we look for them. The difference between the believer and the agnostic might be not so much the acceptance of doctrine as much as a willingness to look for and see the miraculous and the many tiny ways in which Christ ministers to them.