How He Loves

 And He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy

When all of a sudden,
 I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory

And I realize just how beautiful You are

And how great Your affections are for me
And oh, how He loves us, oh

Oh, how He loves us,
How He loves us all

(lrycis by John Mark McMillan)
(Photo:  Harmony House in 2010)

Recently, I was asked to speak about our trip to Beijing, China, for Lottie Moon Missions at my parent's church.  Chris and I went to Beijing in 2010 when we adopted our son, Ian.  I spoke about many places we visited such as the Forbidden City and the Great Wall but nothing compared to our first stop when we held Ian for the first time or our last stop at Harmony House.  You can read the story about the little boy we meet on our way to Harmony House who shared all he had and how God continues to multiply it every time I share his story,  http://www.withsongsofjoy.blogspot.com/2010/12/fill-my-cup.html.  I also found out that he was recently adopted into his new family this year.  God is so good!

While I was preparing to speak, God also reminded me of another little boy, who had no use of his arms and two club feet, which we meet at the same orphanage.  He came right over to us like we were old friends.  At first, I was feeding him an orange that one of the nannies had given me when we arrived. A few minutes later, he grabbed it from me with his little feet and placed it in his mouth.  You should have seen the joy on his face when he saw how stunned I was.  Lily, the director of the orphanage, told me that he had more confidence that any child there, does not let anything slow him down and was extremely smart for his age.  More importantly, no matter what his limitations were, he did not focus on them.  In fact, his joy was contagious as he showed what he could do despite his limitations.  Not long after we left, he was also adopted into his new family!

As I look back, I am overwhelmed by the love of our Heavenly Father.  How He showed me that you can never out give Him and that His mighty power is not bound by our earthly limitations. Most of all, I am reminded that He knew all our "imperfections" in advance and chose us with great pleasure in His heart.  “Long ago, even before He made the world, God loved us and chose us IN CHRIST to be holy and without fault in His eyes. His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His own family by bringing us to Himself THROUGH JESUS CHRIST. And this gave Him great pleasure!” (Ephesians 1:4-5).  Why?  Because He loves us, Oh, how He loves us!

Below is a video that was shared on Facebook by one of my friends.  You will be amazed how God shows His power in the lives of these children.  Listen to the song, "How He Loves," that is played on the piano and sung by George Dennehy.  I sobbed!  Then God blew me away again when I found out that he also plays the guitar! “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him," I Corinthians 2:9.