How Work Became Personal – A Chance Encounter
I have a couple dear friends who exemplify Christian love. Few would make the choice they made and it is this choice that provides such an incredible example of Christian love. I’ve known this couple for many years. She was a professional recruiter – and an outstanding one at that.
She actually recruited the man who would eventually become her husband – ironically for me. He worked for me for a number of years before taking an overseas assignment in Japan that was followed by another overseas assignment in China shortly thereafter.
Taking assignments overseas can be brutal. It’s okay for the one that works but for the spouse and children, it can be a difficult transition, especially when serious differences in culture exist, like in Japan or China. Other than seeking out other Ex-pats, there can be limited opportunities for interaction.
A Fateful Decision
It was while in China that a fateful decision was made. My friend decided to volunteer in an orphanage, a fertile place for Christian ministry. There she found a very young girl who was blind, deaf and dumb – abandoned by her parents. This poor child was also largely ignored by the orphanage staff. Perhaps part of it was the difficulty of interacting with someone so disabled but it was nonetheless shameful.
My friend decided she would spend her time with this young girl. It wasn’t long after that, that my friend realized what a beautiful, precious child she was, falling in love with her. When speaking with them, I remember admiring the work she’d undertaken.
A Life-Changing Choice
I also remember when they both told me they’d decided to adopt her. I remember being amazed and humbled. They were well into their fifties with a grown son and were taking on an enormous responsibility despite being “up there” in years. Who would care for this child after they passed? What would happen should one or both of them become sick? I must admit, I was convicted by my own unwillingness to make such a life-changing choice.
To this day, I’m still amazed, humbled . . . and convicted. They adopted her, brought her to the U.S. and sought out the best medical experts to give her the best life she could have. It included corneal surgeries so that she could have some limited sight, cochlear implants so she could gain rudimentary hearing, and specialists in the hope that she might gain speech.
Though having a functional voice, being deaf, she’d never learned to speak. And unfortunately, the implantation of the cochlear implants came too late and it’s unlikely she will ever gain the ability to speak. But she can sign, and the entire family learned to sign so that they could communicate with her.
The Overwhelming Power of Love
The sacrifice my friends made continues to profoundly impact me. Adopting this child completely changed their lives. She requires enormous personal support and may never be able to live on her own. It has completely changed my friends’ lives.
But that’s the incredible power of love. Love compels us to do things a rational person would never do, to take risks most would consider folly. But that’s love. Love overwhelms reason. It shatters hate and banishes indifference. Love finds no cost too high. How can a couple in their fifties take such a risk? Their love brings trust that “God will provide”. Such was Abraham’s faith (Genesis 22:8) when faced with offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice.
It is this love that the church in general, and this author in particular must find. It is this love that is our Christian testimony. We in the church hate abortion, but hate of sin is not an effective witness. When love compels us to adopt those at risk of victimization to abortion, then we have effective testimony.
If we are honest, most of us are unwilling to adopt the unwanted in our world, never mind adopt those who are completely disabled. It calls into question whether the love of Christ is truly in us. After all, Christ didn’t just adopt us as sons (Romans 8:15: Ephesians 1:5), He laid down His life for us, suffering a most painful death, to secure us as His sons, despite that we were all terribly disabled in His sight. Christ’s love should humble all of us. May we adopt that save love for the least in our world.