God's Love Rejoices in Creative Re-Use:
Isn't it amazing that each person has the same set of genes - about 20,000 in all? The differences between us come from slight variations in these genes. For example, a person with red hair doesn't have the "red hair gene" while a person with brown hair has the "brown hair gene." Instead, all people have genes for hair color, and different versions of these genes dictate whether someone will be a redhead, blonde, or a brunette.
Grand-children are so fascinating because, if you look at their faces from one angle, you see their father, but from another angle, you can see their mother; their body builds, voices, and expressions uncannily reflect parents and other relatives, even stretching back generations.
Each grand-child's unique variations in genes reminds us that God never tires of the constant re-use of the good building blocks of human material. From generation to generation, God looks at each of us, smiles, and says with delight "You're new, and you're created out of the best of the old. Show Me what you can do with all this new talent for loving and giving!"
God's Love Rejoices in Family Variety:
About 135,000 children are adopted in the United States each year. Of non-stepparent adoptions, about 59 percent are from the child welfare (or foster) system, 26 percent are from other countries, and 15 percent are voluntarily relinquished American babies.
Three of our grand-children were adopted by our now-deceased son and his wife - and her new husband has now adopted them. The oldest boy is half Anglo and half Mexican; the twins are African-American. We are so happy to have such variety in our family because it makes us a better reflection of the human family, but also because the heart of Love is giving family to one another, and adoption is one of the best ways to do that.
We love all our grand-children equally; God showed us how. After all, God is the Role Model in doing adoptions: we human beings are adopted sons and daughters of God, adopted through the compassionate Love of God's Son Jesus. And God doesn't treat us adopted ones any differently than He treats Jesus - God loves us all!
This is what saddens us: there are 107,918 foster children eligible for and waiting to be adopted. In 2014, 50,644 foster kids were adopted — a number that has stayed roughly consistent for the past five years. The average age of a waiting child is 7.7 years old and 29% of them will spend at least three years in foster care. If only more people would open their hearts to adopt God's vulnerable and lovable children!
God's Love Rejoices in Overcomers:
Our grand-children amaze us with the force of their wills. Many of them deal with challenges that we and their parents have never personally faced. Two boys deal with the challenge of dyslexia - and, with extra tutoring, are doing so well in school that they are even deciding that they like to read. One boy deals with autism, and loves to play every sport that he can with matchless enthusiasm. Two other boys deal with a cocktail of ADHD and other conditions - we watch them continually working at maturing and improving with great zest and stamina. One girl deals with schizophrenia - and has kept on track with communicating with her parents about when "black thoughts" attack her, and is continually patient with trying new medicines. At this point she's 70 - 80% improved, and her Doctors and counselors expect her to continue to improve. One other girl was born with the CHARGE syndrome, and has lived far longer than many other children with CHARGE. She has a whole crew of young professionals who work with her as she learns how to live independently as a young adult.
With each of these children, their parents and grand-parents have faced (and continue to face) dark nights of anxiety, heartbreak, and near despair. Why should these children have these difficulties that none of us have faced? Yet these children continue to grow, and to wage their battles, and we can see God's loving hand guiding and protecting them and us. What have we gained as a family from all of this? Compassion. As a family, we've dealt with far too many hospitalizations, medicines, and special schools, with Medicaid and SSD and SSI. In our love for our grand-children - and our children for their children - we've glimpsed and been carried by God's love, strengthening us to love His special children, and to have empathy with everyone who lives with disability and/or illness, and their caretakers. Our country's responsibility to provide good Health Insurance for all is a daily reality and priority for us.
God's Love Rejoices in Unity:
At family parties, we love to watch how the generations play games together, bring various dishes for informal potluck, share laughter, tears, teasing, and support. All of these are what it takes to build unity. Our grand-children are there to teach us new computer tricks, show us new drawings or tell us about their classes in engineering, hug us over and over and tell us they missed us, tell us to take a chair while they get us a drink. We're old codgers, but we're still valued. So we can quietly relax about the fate of the world. Our grandchildren's growing skills in loving, being compassionate, and giving will extend beyond the boundaries of our small family to embrace the world family. Through all our trials and sorrows, illnesses, disabilities and deaths, we've learned as a family that our love and support for one another is the most important thing in our world and in the world at large. After all, God's got the whole world in His hands. He sees the human race as His unified people, and He expects us to keep His whole world in our hearts.