July 27 (Daily reading: Isaiah 44-48) Please allow me to share what Judy wrote in reference to Isaiah 44:3-5 (taken from my book, “From West Texas to the French West Indies and Back Again,” pages 190-194). When our boys were seven and four, Judy miscarried our third child halfway through her pregnancy. She later sought God’s will about having another child. Judy tells her story:
“I received in the mail a scripture card from one of my friends in the U.S. She had written the following from Isaiah 44:3–5: ‘I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring; one will say ‘I belong to the Lord’; another will call himself by the name of Jacob; still another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and will take the name Israel’ (NIV). This verse made reference to three children. Was God telling me we would have another child?” Judy described her thoughts after some time had passed: “I often thought of my verse from Isaiah 44 and said to God, ‘Jonathan will say ‘I belong to the Lord;’ Timothy will call himself by the name of Jacob, but when will we have the other child who will write on his hand (and, I added, ‘in his heart’), ‘the Lord’s?’”
We tried unsuccessfully to adopt a mixed-race child while in the U.S. in 1982. Judy then described the beautiful way that God worked to bring Carol into our home. She wrote: “I started smiling when I finally saw all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, and I’m still smiling and thanking God as I write this (when Carol was twelve). In the fall of 1982, when we were trying to get a mixed-race child in the US, there was a beautiful ‘café au lait’ (coffee with milk) baby already waiting for us in Guadeloupe. Carol was born on April 5, 1982.”
– Al Gary
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