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At Last!
by Camerin Courtney
December 11, 2002
There's a new guy in my life. And I'm amazed at how quickly I fell for him and how much he's taught me in just a few days.
He entered the world unbeknownst to me and my family sometime while we were woofing down turkey and pumpkin pie a couple weeks ago. The little 7-pound, 6-ounce bundle of Guatemalan joy is my long-awaited nephew. A reason for thanksgiving, indeed.
When I received the voicemail message from my sister telling me he'd been born and assigned to be theirs, there were instant tears in my eyes. And when I first spied his sleepy face on my laptop computer from the e-mail sent to all the soon-to-be relatives, I cried all over again.
But these are happy, welcome tears. They replace many sad, heartbroken sobs that have come before. Four miscarriages, a slew of invasive medicals tests, and a final conclusion that a full-term pregnancy is a slim, risky proposition for my sister and brother-in-law have preceded this day. As well as the mountain of paperwork that comes with international adoption, many home visits, and slowly passing months of waiting as their number on the "official list" whittled down from eleven to eight to six to three then finally one. And then the coveted call …
It'll be another four to six months before my sister and brother-in-law fly to Guatemala to pick up their son; there's still more paperwork and legalities to take care of. But he's theirs. He's ours. At long last.
The day after I received the happy news, I spent the whole morning assisting a photo shoot for work with three six-month-and-younger little girls. I watched the moms and grandmas dote and coo over the wee ones, silently thinking, You think that's doting, just you wait! My family's waited so long to heap love on this new child, I have a feeling it's going to be Coo-Fest 2003.
It reminded me all over again how things that are much anticipated or hard won are greatly treasured. You can see it in the tight embrace of military men and their families after they've returned from a long or dangerous assignment. You can see it on the face of Olympic gold-medal winners who have defied the odds to attain their goal. And you can see it in the beaming smile of a 40-year-old bride walking down the aisle for the first time. As a never-married thirtysomething, I take great comfort and delight in this truth.
I also realized how often God is orchestrating events "behind the scenes" while we go about our daily lives-going to work, attending church, celebrating a holiday. And then there's an event, such as a phone call, that changes our life forever.
When I gaze at the photo of my soon-to-be nephew, I almost laugh at the fact that he has no idea of what's about to hit him. That someday several months from now two fair-skinned, blond people are going to come scoop him up and smother him with kisses and prayers and tears. And then after a long plane ride, he'll be greeted by even more strange people eager to hold, clothe, cuddle, sniff, rock, feed, and just generally love on him. I wonder if God sometimes looks at our sleepy or frustrated or lonely selves and chuckles a loving laugh over the wonderful plans we're unaware of that await just around the corner.
Later the day of the photo shoot, as I was baking cookies and listening to Christmas music, this truth of highly anticipated things being highly treasured sunk in on a whole different level. When "Come Thou Long Expected Jesus" started booming from my CD player, I stopped mid-stir and found myself all teary-eyed again. It struck me how much anticipated the Christ child was 2,000 years ago, a fact that's easy to forget for those of us who already know the end of the story.
I thought back to the passage we'd read in church the previous Sunday, the well-known "For unto us a child is born … " section found in Isaiah 9:6. It's the five verses preceding that celebratory line that grabbed our attention and showed the world's eager waiting for this miraculous, holy baby's entrance into the world. Those verses speak of people living in darkness and in the land of the shadow of death, who had a yoke that burdened them and a bar across their shoulders. There were tears of pain exchanged for tears of joy at the birth of this "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (v. 6). This long-expected Jesus whom we try to keep in focus this time of year as we rush to and from the mall, holiday parties, and the Christmas tree lot. How easy it is to forget that the world waited in painful and eager anticipation of the eternally significant event we celebrate this time of year.
This sense of holy longing reminds me of a verse in the psalm I've been memorizing lately: "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy" (Psalm 30:11). The next and final verse of this psalm has become my new goal this holiday season: "that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever" (Psalm 30:12).
Thanks for the new little guy in my life born on Thanksgiving, for the joy that's finally replaced my sister and brother-in-law's many sorrows, for a God who knits together families at just the right time and place, for the way he creates beauty from ashes and removes our sackcloth and clothes us with joy (Psalm 30:11), and for a much-anticipated Savior who finally broke the bonds of sin. Hallelujah!
Camerin welcome your feedback and brainstorms at: SinglesNewsletter@ChristianityToday.com
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