Beloved Daughter
“Come and see what God has done.”
Psalm 66:5 (NIV)
Saturday was pure joy as our family gathered to celebrate Birdie James’ first birthday. As hard as it is to believe that Birdie is now a year old, it is even harder to find the right words to express the joy that this little girl has brought to our entire family. Birdie’s name means “light” and she has certainly brought light and laughter into the darkness of grief and loss that accompanied James Bruce’s death, multiple miscarriages, and an arduous three-year adoption process.
Today’s Bible Bits verse was first written to commemorate the Exodus, the signature event of the Old Testament that occurred at least 400 years before this song was written. The unnamed Psalmist encourages Israel to remember that God delivered two million Israelites out of the slavery of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Along the way, God miraculously turned the Red Sea into dry land (Psalm 66:6), preserved the Israelites’ lives (Ps 66:8), and brought them to a place of abundance (Psalm 66:12). The Psalmist, however, not only encourages his readers to remember God’s past national deliverances, but also his current personal deliverance. He then invites his hearers to “come and listen…let me tell you what he has done for me.” (Psalm 66:16). His words are a call to remember Who God is and What He has done both nationally and personally.
Birdie James is one of our “let me tell you what God has done for me” memorial stones. Memorials are remembrances that remind us of a time in a family’s life when everything changed. Memorial stones serve as reminders that God is our Rock (Psalm 18:1) and a very present help in times of trouble (Psalm 46:1). A memorial stone event occurs when we face a seemingly impossible situation, but we step out in faith and obedience. God then delivers us in His own miraculous way. The result is that we get the victory; God gets the glory; and we then have an “our story for His glory” as a testimony to God’s faithfulness and goodness.
During Birdie’s final adoption hearing, a family law judge told Birdie’s parents, “You adopted Birdie into your hearts before you ever adopted her in this courtroom…from now on Birdie will have a new name, a new birth certificate, a new identity, and a new family.” Birdie wasn’t the only one whose life and circumstances changed that day. My sweet daughter-in-law said she could finally breathe once Birdie’s adoption was final. So could the rest of us. Indeed, God made “the barren woman the happy mother of children” (Psalm 113:9) and “brought beauty out of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair” (Isaiah 61:3), not only for Birdie’s parents, but for our entire family.
Adoption is always a choice. We will be forever grateful for Birdie’s birth mom who chose first to give her life and then chose my son and daughter-in-law to be her parents. Birdie’s adoption is a constant reminder that God adopted me to be his child. He didn’t have to, but he chose to do so because he loved me (Romans 8:15,23).
J.I. Packer, author of Knowing God, writes:
“Adoption, by its very nature is an act of free kindness to the person adopted. If you become a father by adopting a son or daughter, you do so because you choose to, not because you are bound to. Similarly, God adopts because he chooses to. He had no duty to do so. He need not have done anything about our sins except punish us as we deserved. But he loved us; so he redeemed us, forgave us, took us as his sons and daughters, and gave himself to us as our Father.”
I hope that Birdie will one day realize how very much she is loved by our family. But even more, I pray that she and I will both come to know and understand how very much we are loved by our Father.
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.
(Stuart Townend)
Beloved Daughters!