Two Mites

Getting to share over at Village21 today:

The spare bedroom in our little home has recently become my favorite room in our house. It had been a hodgepodge space that has recently found it’s decorating groove with garden green walls and reclaimed white furniture. But my heart knows it is more than a space for overnight guests.  It’s a room that is full of hope and anticipation of what Jesus might do; that room represents my YES.

Much of our life right now doesn’t have space for a YES. Work, school, life, medical appointments, church, IEPs, swim lessons, single parenting, all while trying to maintain a safe emotional space & routine for my boy unfortunately leads to a lot of NOs. NOs to playdates, coffee dates, social events, sports involvements, ministry opportunities, foster care, adoption. When your heart has been broken for orphan care the list of NOs feels emotionally debilitating.  But when you yearn to do something...anything to care for the widow and the orphan, a YES becomes a spare bedroom with garden green walls.

A year ago, that room became a first home for a medically fragile infant and her new adoptive family. For that month, our YES was clean sheets and towels. We can do that, Jesus. I can do an extra load of laundry and make sure there are muffins in the kitchen before my boy and I head off to school and work. I can say YES to this. It felt like so little. We weren’t the ones running the race, only providing the proverbial water on the side of the track, but it was exactly what we could do...it was our YES, our two mites for Jesus (Luke 21:1-4).

In the coming months that same room will host another sweet one and her new forever family as they meet in Seattle for the first time--a tiny child from China in need of life saving surgery and a family from Atlanta who was able to offer themselves as a YES. When we received call from the family“Do you happen to have a spare bed? Maybe a crib?”  I jumped!  YES. We have both. The room will be ready--baby gear set, sheets clean, towels hanging in the bathroom, muffins in the kitchen. We can offer this to you and to Jesus. If our YES can be of any ministry to you, it’s yours.  

Are you in a season of NOs? Seemingly checked out of life’s race? Out of the orphan care run?  I would challenge you to think differently. I suspect there is a YES tucked away somewhere in  your life that can be given boldly to our God.

As we welcome National Adoption Month and prepare our hearts for Orphan Sunday next week: What is your YES? What do your two mites for Jesus look like?