The Ultimate Father

“Those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”—Isaiah 40:31 (NASB)

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to the one who lacks might He increases power.”—Isaiah 40:28–29 (NASB)

“’I have food to eat that you know nothing about.’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work.’”—John 4:32, 34 (NASB)

Exhausted from some tough placements, we were on a “foster break.” It seems the toughest calls come in when we’re on a break, so of course, our phone rang for placement in the middle of the night. We drove to the hospital, and I’ll never forget holding a particularly tiny baby boy who fit in my cupped hands.

I’m a big guy, and quite a few of the babies we’ve taken in have been medically fragile. I had to learn how to gently hold these sickly babies and administer life-saving medicines or hook them up to complicated beeping machines. That was scary.

Nothing I’d experienced before prepared me for this. As I looked at the baby boy struggling to breathe, I asked my wife how in the world could we make time and space in our home—and in our hectic lives—to care for this fragile baby. My wife’s reply woke me up: “His need for our home outweighs our need for extra time.”

Through this experience, I realized my experiences could be a deterrent to what God can do today. I learned I had to put my own thought processes away and count on divine wisdom.