Deep Water

 

            In Luke 5:4-7, we hear a story that starts with faith and obedience and ends with a miracle. Jesus has just finished talking to a large crowd. He has been making his speech from the boat of Peter who has loaned him its use. Maybe as a way to thank Peter, Jesus gives Peter a command “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” It is important to know that Peter and his partners had already been fishing all night. They had exhausted all their resources and caught nothing. Peter tells Jesus this exact thing. But they go back to the deep water. The word used in this passage deep is interesting. The Hebrew word means “water in commotion” and the Greek means “abyss.” Isn’t this just what it feels like when the Holy Spirit shows us a new direction where we are to go; it feels like an abyss.

What does it mean to go deep? We know what shallow is. Children play in shallow water. It is a place where our feet can touch the bottom. It feels secure. When our children begin to get out a little too far, we warn them and tell them to come back. Shallow water is inviting, predictable…safe. In contrast, the deep is unknown, unpredictable, and scary. We can’t see what is under the water and cannot support ourselves. We are aware that under our strength, we have a limited time before we would go under. Adoption is deep water.

When the Holy Spirit speaks to a couple’s hearts, they are not given details of how they are to do what they have just been told, or what will happen when they get there. In the world of adoption, there is MUCH that is unknown. The child is unknown, the circumstances of the birth family are unknown, the financial cost and how it will be paid are unknown, and the process and time periods are unknown. Most families I talk to who adopt did not start the process because of a plan they had; instead, God led them to adoption. Some have struggled with infertility, and like Peter are exhausted from the trying and failing. Other families have young children and God showed them something unexpected. And still others have raised their families and God wants them to begin again. With my family, it was a bit of all three. The youngest of our four biological children was about seven years old. We had moved to the country three years earlier with plenty of space for more children but after those three years, it was clear that God had shut a door. Through many different encounters, God laid adoption on our hearts. Our first adventure involved the foster care system for two years before the adoption was complete. Our second and third involved a foreign country and medical specialists. With each one, we quickly realized we were not equipped. We didn’t have the finances, the expertise, the connections, or the support; but we did have Jesus. And Jesus said, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets.”

It has been nineteen years since the beginning of our journey, which led us to begin a nonprofit ten years ago. The organization, called Be The One, (www.betheone1.org) is a ministry to adoptive families. This ministry is a constant reminder of how God, the author of adoption, loves to place children and families together. I get to take a front-row seat at what God is orchestrating for our good and his glory. Each family I come into contact with has similar characteristics: they have been led and have a strong faith that God will provide. One such family has been in contact with us over the course of a few years. They began their journey thinking they would be adopting one child from India. They ended up adopting two siblings, ages seven and nine from Costa Rica. After being home only briefly last summer, they were told their children had an older sibling. They are now preparing to go back and adopt a third time. How is this possible? To adopt three? To adopt older? To return? This brings us back to our story of Jesus in the boat with Peter. Peter is tired and dirty but has just heard the Lord tell him to do something. He says “Master…. because you say so, I will let down the nets.” The word used here which is translated as Master is epistates and has the meaning of commander or boss. Peter recognized Jesus’ authority. He believed in Jesus not because the circumstances were favorable but because he had just spent time in his presence.

This brings us to the third part of the story, the part where the rest of us get involved. Jesus has commanded, Peter has obeyed, and now there are so many fish that his boat is swamped to the point of sinking. He needs his friends to come alongside him and help him with the catch. Do you think they were coerced? Complaining that Peter needed them again? Did they think “This is your thing; Jesus didn’t tell us to go back out?” NO. They were overjoyed to be joining in the miracle. And we should also be overjoyed to be joining in these adoption miracles.

 Friends, I encourage you not to stay in the shallows. God never intended us to live safe, comfortable lives. He desires us to go deep, to become immersed in his grace and provision.

 

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgements, and his paths beyond tracing out!

Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?

Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?

For from him and through him and for him are all things.

To him be the glory forever! Amen.    Romans 11: 33-36

In Christ,

Mary Beth Osowski