That's How Much You're Loved

So I have been working on crafting items to place in my online Etsy shop. I've been working in my free time (ha, right, "free time") on making items to sell. So far, I've got a couple of paintings I am trying to finish up and I've made some cell phone cases.

First off, BIG THANK YOU, for the overwhelming response to the cell phone cases!! I am amazed at the response I had from friends and family just on my Facebook page! Thank you all so, so, much. I have my work cut out for me this next week and I have a lot more cases on order. In case anyone is interested, I am selling them generally for $10 each (plus shipping for those who live out of state). Every bit is going towards the adoption.

Now, onto the real reason for my post today. 

I was reading some blogs online in the wee morning hours today (because my 15 month old still wakes at night, naturally). I found a really great family blog on their adoption from China. I love reading the stories of personal experiences! I saw on this blog something that really shook me. The following picture is not the one I saw personally, but is very nearly the same. 

Orphanage cribs 

Rows upon rows of cribs in an orphanage. So many cribs that they couldn't all fit in one camera angle shot. This wasn't the first time I'd seen this, but for some reason, it really shook me up. Though there were no children in the cribs, I knew that they were full of babies and children who do not have moms and dads, sisters or brothers, cousins or grandparents. They are alone. 

I felt very small. This road I am trying to walk has just begun, and I already see how much time, sacrifice, and expense will be involved.  And at the end of the journey, we will meet and welcome home our 6th child. But, she will be just one less. One in a sea of faces of SO many. So many still need homes. If it was physically possible to do, I would scoop them all up in my arms and love them and be their Mommy. Every child deserves a mom. A dad. A someone. 

I just shook my head and felt the tears burning my eyes and prayed, "God, I want them all." And then I felt him whisper back to my heart, "...so do I." Wow. Just one whisper from Abba broke me. I cried bitterly and deeply. As much compassion and love that my foolish, sinful heart feels for these little ones, oh how much God's heart feels it more. They are each so precious to Him. He doesn't want just one. He wants them all too. Each beautiful child that has ever breathed life either in their mother's womb or outside of it was crafted so beautifully and carefully by God. 

And He wants all of US. Orphan and widow. Mother and father. Slave and free. Haughty and reverent. There isn't one that He wants left behind. He wants to know each of us deeply and wants each of us to know Him in return. 

"Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.'" (Luke 15:4b-6)

This is God's love for us. So deep that it cannot be understood, explained, or described. So beautiful that it physically hurts. A love so reckless and wild, so consuming that it forsakes everything else to pursue. THAT's how much you're loved. What a privilege to hear His voice and to take part in extending that love to one of his precious little ones.