A little over three and a half years ago, Carmen was diagnosed with Tay Sachs. The Sunday after we received the devastating news, we went to church as we do normally. I didn’t really want to go as the emotions were still so raw. But, Dave’s parents had driven down to be with us and they wanted to go to our church, so we all went. Our senior pastor was out-of-town so an assistant pastor spoke.

He spoke on losing a loved one.

I don’t recall ever hearing a sermon on losing a loved one before that one.

As tears poured down our faces, I thought that no message could have been more applicable, more appropriate for us that day.

I remember marveling that in a church of thousands, God was making sure we heard loudly and clearly that He was going to be with us during this journey, that He wasn’t leaving us.

***

Yesterday we decided to visit a church down the street. We had no plans to attend a new church. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

The lead pastor, Joshua Harris, announced that a guest speaker was going to talk about adoption.

I don’t recall ever hearing a sermon on adoption before that one.

Joshua wanted everyone to know that the church had been praying about this particular sermon and that some congregation members who have already adopted children requested that it not be romanticized. Adoption is tough. It’s hard work and it doesn’t always turn out like you plan. Then Joshua said, “God wants you to know that the love you have given your adopted child is not in vain.”

It was tough. It was hard work. And it certainly didn’t turn out like we planned. But, it wasn’t in vain.

Thank you, Lord, for making sure we heard loudly and clearly that You are still here and that You aren’t leaving us.

It’s interesting to us that God would send us to a church we don’t go to on a “random” Sunday to hear a guest speaker whose topic happened to be adoption.