Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Sweetness In The Air

The week is flying by...I woke up minutes ago to Amy in full-fledged "cook" mode and our young neighbor keeping her company while giving her testimony.

The house is filled with the stomach-rumbling aroma of Amy's famous chicken, mushroom, water chestnut dish.

Amy is catering a "youth" fundraiser tonight...our neighbor, whom Amy befriended, is little more than a "youth" herself. Lately, we've been giving her rides to work and she's attached herself to Amy, much to Amy's delight. Our neighbor is a "foster child," and probably the only person in the house next door except her foster Mom whom we haven't called the police on.

She's had a rough life from what I have heard, and she talks a mile a minute. She's made some very wrong choices, and some very right ones. I learned, moments ago, that she's the mother of a soon-to-be two-year old whom she gave up for adoption. It was an "open" adoption and she gets to see her son every so often which brings her great joy.

She quit drugs and an alcohol-fueled lifestyle when she found out she was going to have a child...at 17. Now she's sober, working a lot, a class away from getting her G-E-D, and has plans to start college classes in the fall.

She also recently became baptized in the Holy Spirit.

I had a pastor once who said something akin to, "When people first get saved we should lock them up for five years or so until they settle down." He said that half-facetiously...I think, but I understand his intent. Sometimes when the Spirit of God fills someone, and so radically alters their life, they're bubbling over...nearly babbling over. This young woman fits that description. She's so enthusiastic it's hard to get a word in edgewise, but that's okay.

She's telling us a lot about her life...how God has turned that life around and how she has great faith that despite the wrong turns she's made in the past, God will be there for her in the future.

I just woke up and the air in our home is filled with delights.

3 Comments:

At 8:20 PM, Blogger Katy said...

Beautiful. I can smell the fragrances, hear the praises, feel the joy. Thanks for sharing!

 
At 10:27 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

A college professor introduced me to the joy of sentences that not only provide a wealth of information in relatively few words, but end up in a completely different place than anticipated:

You wrote: Our neighbor is a "foster child," and probably the only person in the house next door except her foster Mom whom we haven't called the police on.

I don?t mean to miss the forest for the trees; there were certainly deeper meanings in your post today. But I just had to share that this piece of it was terrific on its own ? illuminating, startling, and funny. Thank you!

Harlan

 
At 8:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks, Michael. I've needed an uplifting story to raise me from the low point to where I'd fallen. The poor poor pitiful me position trips a person up in more ways than the obvious.

Harlan, thank you also, for bring out a nuiance which sweetens the entire anecdote emensely. This young woman is being fostered in a home, but she's been fully adopted into God's household. Through her adoption she was freed from sins of the past, now is able to walk freely into the future with the assurance of the Holy Spirit's guiding hand. Awesome, sweet, and oh my...don't we have a precious Lord.

 

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