UNITING With The Brother I Never Knew I Had.

My belly was the size of a whale.  I wobbled to the car at my parents. Having a mini-sized hissy fit.

“Why didn’t you have any more kids.” I grown to my parents.

Growing up in a quiet house with just one brother. Hours before birthing my second child. Insisting, “Now my kids won’t have any cousins their age.  They will have no one to play with.”

And it was that day.  My life changed forever.

My Father walked me to the basement.  Pulled out a picture he was holding.  Like a tightly, prized possession.  Gripped closely to his chest.

He turns.  Reveals the photo.  I see the face of an older brother.  One I never knew I had.  Growing up in another family.  He was adopted out at birth.

I look at him.  Am taken back.  He is a perfect reflection of our family.  Mirroring my strong features.  Even unknowingly, owning my favorite name.  The one I had used for one my dolls when I was a little girl.

Two days later. Hours after giving birth, I meet Him.  My parents said…..me asking, was a confirmation of the reconciliation that was about to take place.

I found out,  just how much He was a perfect fit into our family.  The same height as the brother I grew up with.  Both rafting.  Both mountain climbers.  Both loving the outdoors.  They even drove the same car, even though they had never met.

And he writes.  Plays music.  This brother who grew up in a different family.  I so respect him.  He is a Christian.  And today leads a large ministry for broken teens.  Living with his family, for the glory of God, out at a youth ranch.

But, something really neat?  He has children.  Two children.  Same gender.  Same age as my older two.  Both within eight weeks of the exact birthdays of my kids.

Who could do that….but God?

And I learned, my heart for adoption….was not my heart….but God’s.   A perfect reflection of His love for us.  Something He placed within me, from birth.  Before I even knew that my family was the bio family of an adopted out sibling.

This morning, I read….

The word“time” is “kairos” means “season or appointed time”, not some kind of length of time.

What God is saying is that today is your day of reconciliation.  It is the day that we can come in from the cold and UNITE with the blood line of the one who has chose us…chosen you!

It is your day….my day…..to stop living as aliens, separate, apart from the blood bought birth right God used to pay for us.

See, when He chose us.  He saw a resemblance.  He chose us to be the righteousness of God.  Not because of anything we have done.  But because of what He has done.

And so, why do we live, with identities different from the image God created us in?  Why do we live as orphaned children of the world, instead of blood bought chosen one’s straight from the blood line, birthed in the very heart of God?

Is it that we are too busy focusing on how much we are apart, or different from God?  Verses relishing how, by grace, we are made in His image?

And that day of my daughter’s birth, was a growing of our family.  Not just one, but of an entire family, grafted into our hearts.  Reflections of our image.

And I can’t imagine not having my brother. Seventeen years later.  He is someone I so look up to.  Someone who, unlike the rest of my family, I can see myself in.  The way I think is so similar to how he thinks.  What he values.  How he sees life, makes it clear that we are from the same stock. The same root in our family tree.

And I will never let him go.  He is deeply held, close to my heart.  He is my family.  Not because we grew up together, but because our hearts were woven as brother and sister, long before we even met.

For there is safety.  Safety in His loving arms.  Safety in His ways.  Safety in His identity.

After all, can’t we see?  He is holding our picture.  We are tightly in His grip.  And no matter what we choose, or how we choose to live….

He is a Father, who like a good dad, continually carries a photo of you.  Specifically.  Close to His heart.  Never letting you go. 

Not because of what you have or haven’t done, but simply because….He loves you.

Yes, by grace and for His goodness…

Could today be the day?  The day of your salvation?

(Linking with Jen, Titus2)