We’re so proud of her. She could have ended her public shame so easily. We’d never have known we are grandparents. But she’s fighting for more than herself now. She’s fighting to believe that Jesus is sufficient for her as a mama and for the baby she already loves. She’s now on the journey we’ve been on as parents, to believe that Christ has bought not only our lives but also our adoption. In doing so, we have greater sight today that Jesus really is our only hope. And we stand in testimony to our daughter that he is hope enough when your kids are little—and when they have little ones on the way. We can trust he is sufficient both for the day of triumph and for the day of great sin.
Hard-Fought Redemption
As I read back over these words, it seems so simple, doesn’t it? Just trust him so you can stay in the story God is telling, and tell the right story by your own responses. Trust that he has only and always dealt with sinners, and is really excellent at redemption stories. You can believe it for me easier than you can believe it for yourself. I know because that’s true for me, too. And yet, these words aren’t easy at all, are they? They are blood-bought and hard-fought by the triune God who loves us.
And they must be hard-fought by us as well. Read his Word as if it’s actually true so that when the wave breaks over you, you can let yourself be swept away They are his waves. They will not overtake you, will they? Is he not with you? Does he still not say, “This far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed” (Job 38:11)? Treasure his Word in your days of peace so you rest secure in the day of trouble.
There you’ll find the stories written long ago for us. There we watch him deal with his wayward people and return them to himself for his name’s sake. There we see the everlasting covenant he made with a people who have worn down the path our daughter’s walking today. There we learn how to read her life in light of a great cloud of witnesses to God’s faithfulness. And there we find her story changed because of the one who became sin for us all that we, the shamed and the guilty, might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
It’s a story that’s hard and messy, but it’s never without hope. Our children’s lives have never been dependent on our parenting. They have always been in the hands of our God, and so are we. Our hope doesn’t rest in what we do for them, but in the Christ who is hope enough for us all. We trust in his grand story that has always been an upside-down tale, where those who deserve death get life because the one who is life took on death and triumphed.
So it’s not really too surprising, is it, that instead of receiving the wages of death, our family’s free gift of grace is a grandbaby.
This post originally appeared at The Gospel Coalition.
