The Journey 326
Read: 1 Kings 17: 8-16
The nation celebrates thanksgiving day. A day that is memorable because this is one of those days in the year when the concept of family becomes much more wider and everyone gathers round the table to have fellowship along with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, apple pie and so on. Joy and happiness that is spread round the family. But have a look at the life of Scott Wells, the center of St. Louis Rams and his wife Julie, on the way they changed the concept of the celebration of thanksgiving. CNN has published a wonderful news today about this couple written by Jon Wertheim in SI.com. Way back in 2005, life for Scott was happy and contented because he was playing as center for Green Bay Packers, which gave him a steady work and that was the time when his wife Julie was pregnant with their twin boys Deacon and Maddox. But their happiness was short-lived because both the twin died at birth itself on thanksgiving day. It was day after thanksgiving that Julie was discharged from the hospital and both them grieved over the death of their twins. They also had lot of explaining to do to their young son Jackson who was 2 years old then, as to how his baby brothers were no longer alive. The family went into mourning and had a memorial service for the dead children. But soon they had a daughter Lol and after a year followed by a son Kingston. One day during an off season game time, Scott and Julie noticed that a number of families in Nashville had adopted children. Suddenly he felt God speaking to him and both he and his wife decided to go make their family large and thus go in for adoption. After having looked at a number of option they finally settled to find two children under the age of three from Uganda, because Uganda was a country that had a high rate of HIV, and other disease neither did the country follow the Hague convention on protection of children and cooperation in respect of inter county adoption. This meant that they could expect lot of resistance and bureaucratic and red tapism to get children adopted from this country. Finally after a long search the adoption agency pinpointed two kids aged two for adoption. They were overjoyed and they decided to fly to Uganda to start the legal procedure. That is when the adoption agency called Scott and told him that one of the boys had a younger sister and it would be tragic if the boy was separated from the sister. Would they mind adopting the girl child too?. Scott and Julie were confused. Then they realized if that is how God is leading them they will adopt all the three thus their daughter would get a sister too. Finally they landed in Uganda and the real trouble and ordeal began. The court were very insensitive to the needs of the couple and because of legal procedures that follows an adoption the wait prolonged. Scott was also on medication for his injured knees and this meant that he could not prolong his stay in Uganda, nor could he aggravate his injury. Finally after a long drawn battle and legal procedure they got the custody of the three children, but now came the fresh issue. They had no visas. Scott had to return back home, but Julie decided to stay in the strange African country to get the required visa for the kids to travel. After a grueling 10 weeks stay in Uganda, where she had to run between courthouse and orphanage she finally managed to get the all the legal paper work done and finally she returned home with the adopted kids. Today their family is huge and Julie describes her home as an “organized chaos”. But then it is on thanksgiving that both Scott and Julie becomes very emotional. They reminiscence the grief and sorrow that they went through at the loss of their twins on thanksgiving but at the same time rejoice at the later addition in the family especially the additions from the Uganda. Having six kids at home can sometime drive you crazy but then they find joy in organized chaos at home. For Scott and Julie thanksgiving meant that the boundaries and walls of the family had to be broken down so that the emotional and well being of family could be offered to someone who are denied these privileges. I think as we all celebrate thanksgiving let us think whether we also could broaden the wall and boundaries of our family to make thanksgiving truly memorable.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from 1 Kings 17: 7-16. This is an incident that every one is so familiar but a story that is so amazing in the way God leads a prophet and also the way God blessed a widow who is going through severe crisis. What is amazing about this story is that you have a prophet who is also going through crisis. There is drought in the land and now Elijah almost live like a fugitive. It is here that he is helped by a widow who has also lost everything and is preparing to end her life along with her son. She has only a little flour and oil in the jug and she decides to make something to eat and then die. It is then that she encounters Elijah who request her for food. The widow describes her plight to Elijah who reassures her that Lord God knows her need and understands what she goes through. The widow does not focus now on her crisis or her tragedy but makes effort to share the little that she had. She consciously enlarges her life and her home to accommodate Elijah and shares the little that she had with Elijah. That is when the miracle happens. The Word of God says that from then on flour nor the oil was never dried up. Miracle that happens when the widow took upon herself the need of the prophet, took up the challenge to share whatever little she had, consciously enlarging her boundaries of her home and breaking the walls that isolated her from others. When she did, God’s blessing poured out in abundance. This thanksgiving can we also like the widow, like Scott Wells enlarging the concept of family to make our thanksgiving truly memorable.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla,
The nation celebrates thanksgiving day. A day that is memorable because this is one of those days in the year when the concept of family becomes much more wider and everyone gathers round the table to have fellowship along with turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, apple pie and so on. Joy and happiness that is spread round the family. But have a look at the life of Scott Wells, the center of St. Louis Rams and his wife Julie, on the way they changed the concept of the celebration of thanksgiving. CNN has published a wonderful news today about this couple written by Jon Wertheim in SI.com. Way back in 2005, life for Scott was happy and contented because he was playing as center for Green Bay Packers, which gave him a steady work and that was the time when his wife Julie was pregnant with their twin boys Deacon and Maddox. But their happiness was short-lived because both the twin died at birth itself on thanksgiving day. It was day after thanksgiving that Julie was discharged from the hospital and both them grieved over the death of their twins. They also had lot of explaining to do to their young son Jackson who was 2 years old then, as to how his baby brothers were no longer alive. The family went into mourning and had a memorial service for the dead children. But soon they had a daughter Lol and after a year followed by a son Kingston. One day during an off season game time, Scott and Julie noticed that a number of families in Nashville had adopted children. Suddenly he felt God speaking to him and both he and his wife decided to go make their family large and thus go in for adoption. After having looked at a number of option they finally settled to find two children under the age of three from Uganda, because Uganda was a country that had a high rate of HIV, and other disease neither did the country follow the Hague convention on protection of children and cooperation in respect of inter county adoption. This meant that they could expect lot of resistance and bureaucratic and red tapism to get children adopted from this country. Finally after a long search the adoption agency pinpointed two kids aged two for adoption. They were overjoyed and they decided to fly to Uganda to start the legal procedure. That is when the adoption agency called Scott and told him that one of the boys had a younger sister and it would be tragic if the boy was separated from the sister. Would they mind adopting the girl child too?. Scott and Julie were confused. Then they realized if that is how God is leading them they will adopt all the three thus their daughter would get a sister too. Finally they landed in Uganda and the real trouble and ordeal began. The court were very insensitive to the needs of the couple and because of legal procedures that follows an adoption the wait prolonged. Scott was also on medication for his injured knees and this meant that he could not prolong his stay in Uganda, nor could he aggravate his injury. Finally after a long drawn battle and legal procedure they got the custody of the three children, but now came the fresh issue. They had no visas. Scott had to return back home, but Julie decided to stay in the strange African country to get the required visa for the kids to travel. After a grueling 10 weeks stay in Uganda, where she had to run between courthouse and orphanage she finally managed to get the all the legal paper work done and finally she returned home with the adopted kids. Today their family is huge and Julie describes her home as an “organized chaos”. But then it is on thanksgiving that both Scott and Julie becomes very emotional. They reminiscence the grief and sorrow that they went through at the loss of their twins on thanksgiving but at the same time rejoice at the later addition in the family especially the additions from the Uganda. Having six kids at home can sometime drive you crazy but then they find joy in organized chaos at home. For Scott and Julie thanksgiving meant that the boundaries and walls of the family had to be broken down so that the emotional and well being of family could be offered to someone who are denied these privileges. I think as we all celebrate thanksgiving let us think whether we also could broaden the wall and boundaries of our family to make thanksgiving truly memorable.
We are meditating on the theme “ Transformed Living” and the portion that we shall use for our meditation is from 1 Kings 17: 7-16. This is an incident that every one is so familiar but a story that is so amazing in the way God leads a prophet and also the way God blessed a widow who is going through severe crisis. What is amazing about this story is that you have a prophet who is also going through crisis. There is drought in the land and now Elijah almost live like a fugitive. It is here that he is helped by a widow who has also lost everything and is preparing to end her life along with her son. She has only a little flour and oil in the jug and she decides to make something to eat and then die. It is then that she encounters Elijah who request her for food. The widow describes her plight to Elijah who reassures her that Lord God knows her need and understands what she goes through. The widow does not focus now on her crisis or her tragedy but makes effort to share the little that she had. She consciously enlarges her life and her home to accommodate Elijah and shares the little that she had with Elijah. That is when the miracle happens. The Word of God says that from then on flour nor the oil was never dried up. Miracle that happens when the widow took upon herself the need of the prophet, took up the challenge to share whatever little she had, consciously enlarging her boundaries of her home and breaking the walls that isolated her from others. When she did, God’s blessing poured out in abundance. This thanksgiving can we also like the widow, like Scott Wells enlarging the concept of family to make our thanksgiving truly memorable.
Rev. Dr. Joe Joseph Kuruvilla,