Israel, my son

     I had long wanted to name my son Israel, for a few reasons.

     The first was/is because "Israel" is God's chosen people and we were choosing our son through adoption.
     Two weeks before we went to Ethiopia to meet our Israel, I was at the last minute asked to go to Mexico, to Esperanza Viva.  There, a day after telling one of the women about our soon-to-be-ours son, she said, "I've been thinking: You chose his name because you are choosing him, right?"  "Yes."  And then she told me that she couldn't sleep the previous night because she couldn't stop thinking that really it's because he is God's chosen son.  "YES!"
   
     I have thought about that a lot over the past two and a half difficult years.  Israel was chosen by God to be our son.  He is a precious gift from God, which I have intensely experienced.  The child is, as his Ethiopian name means, amazing.  I am so grateful that God made him a part of our family.  Israel has been and continues to be the hugging arms and encouraging words of Jesus.  The body of Christ.

The other day, as there wasn't enough of whatever I had made for lunch for me, Israel, on his own, got out the trusty stool and started rummaging through the fridge and pantry.  Once he had all of his ingredients ready, he asked me to tie on an apron.  And the child prepared me lunch: yogurt, a cut up banana (an excuse to use a knife), blueberries and a sprinkling of hemp hearts.

     Another of the reasons why I chose the name Israel was to remind him and us of God's faithfulness in spite of our faithlessness.  I just read again this morning, in Numbers 14, "The Lord said... 'How long will these people treat me with contempt?  How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of the miraculous signs I have performed among them?'"  This is me.  This is most of us.  And we need to remember that though we are so faithless, God is just and faithful.

     Why am I going on so?  Well, it is exactly five years ago that we brought Baby Israel home, so I've been reminiscing.  And I also want Israel to be able to read this someday and understand.