What If We Did?

        I'm sitting here in a coffee shop going through pictures from our trip to Zeke, There is SO much that I want to write and many things that I pray God etches on my heart...but I want to begin with just one.

   On our last night in China, we were walking back from dinner in a drizzling rain, and Doug turned to me and said, "I really want to say thank you...thank you for listening to the Lord, thank you for risking and talking to me. I cannot imagine our life without this little guy now."

   Honestly, my response was, "No...I was such a coward. I had told God I couldn't share with you. I told him that he had to do it."

   Honestly, the reason my days are filled with the smiles and giggles of this amazing little boy are because of what Doug said that night back in March when I told him about Zeke...

He said, "What if we did???"

and it changed everything...

"What if we did?" opened that door a crack...

...instead of letting fear, the unknowns, the worries slam the door shut, my husband said we should pray...

and for the six days that we prayed, asking God if this was our son, Doug kept coming back with the same answer...

His answer was, "Why wouldn't we?"

"The Bible is so clear about God's heart for the widows and the orphans...why wouldn't we?"

and so we stepped, into a great adventure....

Where we have been challenged, grown and are beyond blessed.

...and the thing is

We aren't the only ones taking that step. This was our travel group, each family stepping out and saying "what if we did?"

I still can hardly look at this picture through the tears...these people, they are the real deal and we got a front row seat to seeing them be the arms of God to 15 children who are no longer orphans.

and the thing is....

there are families doing this ever.single.week.

So....that last night, in the drizzling rain, we started talking.

What if we lived our lives that way?

Asking first,

"What if we did?"

and

"Why wouldn't we?"

Using God's word as our guide for where to step.

What if we first let God open each opportunity first.

What if we thought first about the possibility instead of the impossibility or the discomfort, or what it was going to cost us?

"What if we did???"

"Why wouldn't we?"

Today our pastor spoke on being the salt of the earth and the light of the world...

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" Matthew 5:13-16

He talked about how salt is most useful when it is rubbed into meat....preserving it, saving it...asking how we can be rubbed into this world...

 ...all the while, Zeke sat on my lap happily swinging his feet and leaning into me for kisses on his head...a son, preserved, becoming whole.

...and those words echoed again,

"What if we did???"

We are daily living out the reality of saying one tiny yes...

it is honestly one of the best things that has ever happened to us.

What would happen in our lives and in this world if our response to God's promptings was....

"What if we did?"

and

"Why wouldn't we?"