A Tale of Two Mailboxes

The alternate title for this could be "Objects Standing Still Can Inflict Injury On a Moving Part."

I must start out with a confession: not once, but twice in the last few months I have hit a mailbox with my side view mirror. The first occasion involved my husband's truck and in my defense, the mailbox door was open in a construction zone area. I don't drive the truck much and I was tired. I bought him a new one and chalked it up to "one of those things."  Then last week I hit my 2nd mailbox; this time with my car. I was moving over to the shoulder since a car was coming toward me and anyone who has driven in "my neck of the woods" knows that there isn't always room for 2 cars on every part of the road. I didn't see it coming; just heard a BAM! and saw half a mailbox flying through the air as I glanced in my rear view mirror. My shattered, side mirror was dangling by a wire for a few brief moments before it too became air born.

I think the thing that bothered me the most about this whole episode was that I am a good driver; at least I thought I was. And even though my husband has shown wonderful restraint in not making any snide comments (a wise man), I was kicking myself for being what I thought was careless. However, a few days later when I again drove down this road, I noticed that the mailbox was leaning out over the road and it was obvious that it had been hit by another driver.

The journey of adoption can be similar to this:  If we are doing what God has called us to do, then we will be moving forward - serving God in some way through loving his people. Yet we find that not all people Christian or otherwise are moving. In fact a lot of people are standing still and watching. These people are usually the ones who tend to criticize our actions wondering why we feel the need to get involved with other people's problems. In the adoption world this can take the form of family, friends or even strangers wondering why we want to "save the world." They will tell us stories of people they've "heard' about who lost all their money or were overwhelmed by behavioral problems. They may tell us that we have too many kids already, or we don't make enough money, or we are too old to be starting over. To them all activity is wrought with danger. When we "run" into someone who is standing still it can knock us down and cause us to doubt the path we are on. But as I realized in my encounters with the mailboxes, running into something that stands still doesn't always mean we have acted carelessly, it may just mean that we are traveling a path with obstacles.

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love."  Galatians 5:6

 Be The One