Saying YES to Narnia

“I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!”
― C.S. Lewis, The Last Battle

I love the Chronicles of Narnia. I remember the first time I read them in the 5^th grade. I didn’t know such beautiful Biblical allegory existed and for 30-some odd years, I’ve been obsessed! The mind bender when I was 10 years old was that Narnia was always there, but it wasn’t until the wardrobe door was opened that the Pevensie children had their eyes opened to the world that laid beyond them.  It was their first YES that opened an entire new reality (and six more books to follow!) They could never un-see, un-know this new reality and as such their whole lives were forever altered. What they had always known, was no longer real or where they longed to be. All their gifts, skills and passions were made for this new unknown adventure. They ultimately chose to forever be a part of Narnia as Narnia was so much a part of them.  

That is what the foster/adoption journey has been for me…my eyes opened into Narnia.  I knew caring for the widow and orphan was important and as a Believer I needed to make sure that I too was caring for the less fortunate, but that first YES…the YES that led me to my son changed everything. I had walked through the wardrobe into a world that I could never un-see, un-know. The widow and orphan now had a name and a face and lived in my house and the reality of what that meant absolutely gutted me.  Living out James 1:27 was no longer an optional event but it wasn’t a mandate either. It was the fruit of loving my Jesus simply because He loved me first. My only ‘reasonable’ response to His ultimate sacrifice for me was to love sacrificially.  It suddenly made total sense! YES, I could open my home and my heart to those without family…in fact, why wouldn’t I? This earthly house is temporary-it has no immortal value, but what if it could eternally impact someone else??  How I didn’t see it before was mindboggling.  (How did the entire world save, Professor Kirke, not know Narnia existed?!)

The YES to my son, led to the YES of supporting other families who were stepping out in faith unto the adoption road. Free time became ministry time on the phone and internet. Then our home was opened up to families on international layovers. Those YESs led to coming along side forever families new to the medically complex child world, literally staying in our guest bedroom.  Those YESs became some medical file reviews after the house was quiet and that YES led to a literally unbelievable adventure in welcoming home a teenage daughter from the opposite side of the world of my son.  Her YES led to a conversation with an old colleague which led to the start of the first foster/adoption clinic in a three county area. Hundreds if not thousands of foster & adoption families would now have access to medical, dental and behavioral health services.  But Lord is there more?? A new chapter? A new island on the Narnian map in the midst of our nation’s immigration crisis? The Office of Refugee Resettlement needs passionate people sensitive to the needs of unaccompanied and undocumented minors. Most have been trafficked and abused—left widowed and orphaned. YES, Lord, these are Your children, we will say YES.

Some days the sheer magnitude of need feels SO BIG. My heart is heavy and my head hurts trying to wrap my brain around what I didn’t even know existed: children living in local hotels because there aren’t any foster homes available, adoptions being disrupted due to the lack of trauma based services for adoptive families, children being trafficked internationally and left broken on the side of the road in our own country, two year olds with 25 foster placements in less than a year.  How did this happen?!  How did I not know??  How can I not respond??   But this is what we are made to do—to love deeply and to go further up & further into understanding His sacrifice for us. We have been given the gifts, skills and passions for this very thing—to love others like He has loved us. We just have to open the wardrobe door and dare to say YES.