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Sometimes it’s easy to feel unseen. Powerless. Unimportant. Unable to act because of broken, evil systems. This morning I was reading Jeremiah 38 & 39. Tucked into the devastating account of the brutal Babylonian siege against Judah is the story of Ebed-Melech, an Ethiopian eunuch in King Zedekiah’s court. Everyone’s favorite Bible character, yes? If you haven’t read this lately, check out Jer emiah 38:7-13 and 39:15-18. A quick summary- Jeremiah has been thrown into a muddy cistern to starve during the siege because none of the kings’ officials likes the message he’s been telling them from God. Ebed-Melech sees this, has compassion on Jeremiah, and acts with such courage that he approaches the king and boldly says that what was done to Jeremiah was evil. The king then tells Ebed-Melech to go ahead and haul Jeremiah up out of the cistern and gives him 30 men to help! This wasn’t a small task, evidently! E-M doesn’t stop there. He’s concerned for Jeremiah’s comfort and safety, d...

If our rocking chair had a odometer attached, I wonder what it would read. How many miles I have rocked on this emotional marathon of parenting and foster care. Tonight I sat back in it's familiar soft embrace, with a little girl who is spunky and scrappy and has stolen my heart. She moved in last Sunday. We pray she will be ours forever. She snuggled against me wrapped up in her blanket, drinking her evening bottle with heavy eyes. Jesus loves me, this I know  For the Bible tells me so. My mind wanders as I sing the familiar words. I think about all the babies I have loved and rocked in this chair. I think about the ones we loved fiercely and grieved their leaving so deeply it felt like a death. A private, uncomfortable grief that no one quite knows how to comfort you through. I miss them, our five boys - their absence weighs on me still. I start to count the years and wonder if little D is in preschool this year. Did he have his first day of school? How did it go? W...