It was just like most Sunday mornings as I arrived at church early to prepare for the days service. 8:55am rolled around and from my peripheral vision I saw this sweet little image I’d come to expect running towards me as fast as her little feet would take her. It was my sweet girl, Mason! She was the daughter of one of my praise team members and just the most precious little girl in the world to me (and still is). Every Sunday, she would run straight to me and we would shower each other with sweet sugars, exchange big hugs, and just chat for a few minutes. Many times, I would hold her throughout our practices lugging her around on my hip. Later, we would always make our way to the nursery as I helped her cut up her sausage patties for breakfast and we would play for a few minutes longer until my responsibilities took me away. Mae-Mae (her nickname) was like my child before I had a child. God sent that little blessing (who has recently been chosen to be on the JV Cheerleading team at her school and is staring down teenage life) into my life at just the right time. My wife and I were headlong into our infertility issues with no end in sight as we waited to see what God would do on our behalf. That sweet face always gave me the encouragement and fortitude to press forward in the midst of our own personal barrenness. I can’t tell you the number of times God would use that little squirt to encourage me in the moments my heart was hurting and aching for a child of my own. She wasn’t my child, but her parents selflessly shared her with me as if she were. It was during that season that I learned how important it is to sow where I wanted to go.
Genesis 12:4-5 tells us about Abram (later renamed Abraham). It states, “4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. This is one of the first things were hear about Abram. God has just informed him, he was to follow Him “to a land I will show you.” This was a great step of faith for Abram as he really had no encounters with God until this point and nothing to base this knowledge on. God has just promised Abram he would become a great nation. This seems impossible as he and Sarai, his wife, are childless and beyond child-bearing age. Lot was not his child as Lot’s father had died prematurely. Reading through the story reveals to us that, though Lot was not his son, Abram sowed fatherhood. He cared for and put Lot’s needs ahead of his own. He rescued Lot when he had been captured. He faithfully parented a child that was not biologically his own. It would be twenty-five more years (when he is 100 and his wife is 90) before God’s promise would come to fruition and they would actually have a child (Isaac).
Closing remarks and encouragement: Waiting on God stinks. There’s no other way to put it. We live in a microwave society that wants everything now (and I’m guilty of it myself). While we’re in our waiting season, it’s important to pay attention to what God is doing IN us, rather than focusing on what we want from Him or what we don’t have. Like Abram, we must remain faithful in our waiting season(s). Abram sowed fatherhood even in his moments of barrenness. Choose to be faithful while you wait on God today! And don’t forget to sow where you want to go!
Have a blessed week, my friends!