Unto Us a Child

New pictures arrived in my e-mailbox just before Thanksgiving. There were two and the second one grabbed my heart. His face was beaming with a smile that melted me off my seat; his eyes twinkled and for some reason, through that picture he became real to me.

Just less than two years of waiting, hoping, dreaming and planning have disappeared and now there’s a real baby with a real name in a real crib waiting for his new mommy and daddy to bring him home.

Our kids leave early December to fly across the ocean. Looking at their itinerary I see words I can’t pronounce and picture my son walking on foreign soil with his wife, his eyes absorbing a foreign culture, his arms holding his adopted son – his first child.

I close my eyes and I’m standing at O’Hare Airport on my tiptoes, my heart bursting, my eyes gushing, my neck straining above and around heads swimming past me in a thick stream. Finally, I see them – no longer two, but three.

I pick up the Christmas baby booties I purchased last year for my grandson. I’ve kept them within sight all these months not knowing who would wear them, but hoping and praying for God to bring us a child soon.

The booties are powder blue with round cloth peppermint candies sewn on the toes. I practice counting my new grandbaby’s little toes, covering each group of five with tiny socks and hiding them in the little slippers. I watch with delight as he kicks his chubby legs, squirms and coos and kicks them off.

Off course I write all this by faith, and pray that by the time I write my January article it will all be reality. As Christmas 2008 approaches, I can’t help but think of the child that was given to a humble family in Bethlehem thousands of years ago.

I can only believe that their child’s arrival was anticipated with the same joys, fears, dreams and hopes as our family is now experiencing. He too was from a foreign land and adopted by his father.

I marvel that God placed the world’s Savior into a family and that through his son he adopted each of those who believe in him and trust in him by faith as their Savior.

Unto us a child is born. Unto us a child is given.