Of Sparrows and Sovereignty

The God who spoke the universe into being gave me a gift today, through His word and through His creation.  It's a gift worth sharing, that I hope will be as encouraging to you as it was to me.  To bring you along through the journey that I took this morning might make this post longer than I would like, but hopefully, it'll be worth it.

Recently, I've been working through a list of passages in the Bible that declare the truth of God's sovereignty.  This list has been helping me to remember and lean on what is true about God, instead of leaning on my own understanding.  The two passages that I read this morning are seemingly unrelated in context and content, yet for me, on this day, they were familiar passages woven together in a completely new and miraculous way.

The first was Isaiah 46:9-10, "Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.  Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying, 'My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure.' "

This was a powerful reminder that God is in control, that He alone knows the end from the beginning, and that His purposes WILL be accomplished.  In context, this passage alludes to Cyrus, the pagan ruler that would not be born for another 150 years, but that God would use to deliver His people, and it reminded me that no ruler or government can thwart God's will...not even the president of Haiti.  I came away from this passage with a properly aligned perspective of my big, holy, powerful, sovereign God who knows and controls things far beyond my limited and sinful understanding.

The next passage on the list was Matthew 10:29-30, "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent?  And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.  But the very hairs of your head are all numbered."

For some reason, this instantly spoke to me of my two "sparrows" in Haiti and I was overwhelmed by God's intimate knowledge and providence for all creatures, including the smallest and seemingly insignificant.  In Jesus' day, sparrows were so insignificant that one alone had no value, only two of them together were valuable enough to be worth a penny.  By the world's standards, the poor and fatherless in Haiti (or any country) are often considered to be insignificant, of little value...but not in God's economy.

Matthew Henry's 18th century words brought home this message to my heart this morning.  "Verse 30 shows the account that God takes and keeps of all the concerns of all his people, even of those who are least regarded and of least consequence.  If God numbers their hairs, then how much more does he number their heads, taking care of their lives, their comforts, and their souls?"

So, there I sat in my living room, reminded that my God is greater, stronger, higher than any other and that His power far exceeds any human authority and then, in the next moment, He stooped down and whispered to my heart, "I see them, I know them, I've numbered the hairs on their beautiful brown heads, and I will provide and care for them as only I can.  Do not fear for your sparrows, they can not fall and skin their knee without my knowing about it.  They are more precious to me than you can imagine. I am God and I am taking care of their every need."

Oh, the comfort that God's timeless and yet very personal words brought to me this morning.  This is our God.  Holy, sovereign, powerful...and tender, gentle, loving, reassuring.  And as if those truths weren't gift enough, a little while later, in the midst of grammar, spelling and fractions, I looked out to see not one, but two, sparrows sitting on the tree branch just outside our window.  A priceless and unforgettable moment on this journey...

     This is the story of the Saski family.  Both the story of the Saski family that is....and the story of the Saski family that will be.  God has been writing this story since August 29, 1998 -- the day we said "I do."  The first few chapters have been written in both the life-changing and the everyday moments of the last 14 years.  As our story has developed, new main characters have made their appearances...most notably in the addition of our 3 beautiful biological daughters, Maria, Annika, and Olivia.  They are currently 10, 7 , & 2 years old and have turned our life from an uneventful documentary into a drama bursting with laughter and tears.

     Somewhere along the way, the storyline of our adoption journey started as a subplot and has since taken center stage in the story that God is writing with our lives.  As this blog begins, we invite you, our dear friends and family, to experience the ups and downs, twists and turns, and joys and sorrows of these chapters with us.  We don't know the end of this story, or the detours we may encounter as we walk this road.  But we do know the Author, and we trust that His story is far better than anything we could write on our own.  As Corrie ten Boom once said, "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."   

    So what can you expect from my feeble attempts to document our story?  Some of what I share will be the setting of the stage, making sure you all know the storyline that has happened to bring us to this point.  This blog will definitely be full of suspense and cliff hangers as I update the latest developments of our adoption journey and as we move closer, day by day, to the moment that we will bring our precious Haitian children home.  And while this story is about us and the family that God has blessed us with here on earth, it is truly about God, the Father to the fatherless, who loves us so completely that He paid a higher price than we can ever imagine to adopt us into His family.  Without that truth, nothing else matters. 

   We invite you to come with us, page by page, chapter by chapter, as we discover what God has planned for our family.  Good stories are always better when we can enjoy them with those closest to us.  We're so glad you're here and we hope that you'll be encouraged and uplifted as we experience this life-changing story together.