Not that I don't love the gift...but I really love the God-made fruit beside the dresser

Sometimes it's good to be a little delayed in taking a life event - filtering it through a through other events - before it arrives in a blogged update. The number of perspectives increase so much so that the event becomes less important in itself than what it demonstrates. For instance, in my area of the country, a long-suffering and tortured franchise named "the Royals" have suddenly become the little darlings of baseball. They've won enough games over the last few weeks that people are genuinely excited (as opposed to already looking to the next season because the current one is hopeless). In this case, there is a certain level of excitement that comes from the winning itself, but there is a mass of other things that are probably effects and correlations to the winning, like "hope," "city-wide pride," "team support," and others.

For us (as you can see in the pictures below), we got treated like royalty by our church as the kids of the church raised money for the adoption. Of course the money itself is a great blessing, but obviously the feelings of love, the kindness, the work some people put into it, and the joy were all immediate benefits.

One Drawer for a Reminder

One Drawer for the Money

And a new dresser for babies to sleep in

Now 2 weeks out from the event, it's the other things that are happening that make the whole situation far sweeter than even that moment could have provided. "Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit" is the way Paul likes to put it. That is, the little church that Bry and I (and Mac and Newt and ____ and ____) get to be a part of is showing all the credentials of a people that really believe God will supply their needs. Now we're all quite wealthy by worldly standards, but I wish for those of you who love Bry and I, but aren't part of our little world in St. Joe, could see the medical sufferings, spiritual deserts, Godly soul-searching all embraced by a small little congregation planted by God on the east side of Missouri river town. What Bry and I received has simply been part of the season of fruit-bearing that has come out of decades of people remembering that God has supplied our needs in Christ Jesus. So, of course we're glad we got money and a new dresser because we love gifts. But we're far more excited to see that piece of God-made fruit sitting right beside our dresser, the living proof that God is shaping a people fully determined to bank on him and his riches to supply every need.