I wrote a story a few years ago about a used baby crib my mother purchased for my son at a garage sale shortly after he was born. As we were setting up the crib, I noticed something unusual about it. On the post at the head of the bed were three scriptures. Someone had handwritten the quotes on stickers you might use to label your business files and stuck them to the headboard. One read, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” The other said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I have no idea what the third one said.
At the time all this was happening, my husband had just left our family. My daughter was 2 ½ years old. I didn’t have a job and had no idea how we would survive. So, when a crib showed up on my doorstep with encouraging scriptures, I was…well, I was encouraged. One night, in the middle of a sleep deprived session with my crying newborn, the moon highlighted the scripture in the dark of night, “You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.” In that moment, the words found their way deep into my heart, giving it a surge of energy that assured me I could not only care for my children, but I could hope for our future as well.
It wasn’t until years later I realized that wasn’t the crib’s whole story. As a matter of fact, many of the stories in our lives have meanings beyond those we grasp at the moment.
In his early twenties my son went through a really hard time that lasted almost 6 years. We tried to help, but nothing seemed to work. One day, as I was sitting in the back yard praying for him, I felt the tug of a memory in my heart. I remembered the bed and the scripture stickers, and I suddenly realized that, as much as the scriptures on the crib had helped me, they were meant for more. You see, the crib was purchased for my son. Right at the moment his father was abandoning our family, Josh had received a handwritten note on his baby bed that read, “I will never leave your or forsake you.” God was claiming Josh as his own, no matter who else might leave him.
Your earthly father can desert you, but God doesn’t. Your mother may not be very loving, but God is. Your family may be scattered and broken, but God has designs on your life, to make you His own. The prophet Jeremiah says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.
The next day I told my son how I’d realized that the crib was his, the message for him, the hands of a loving heavenly father replacing those of an absent one. It was several years before those words really sunk into his heart and helped him to recover the life that was draining away from him. While my daughter and I have stories of our own, part of Josh’s story was a crib delivered via garage sale that spoke to a newborn baby, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” I think the words have finally lodged in his heart.
My hope today is that they will lodge in yours as well because this isn’t just about me, or my son, or my daughter, or my family. Those words are meant for you as well. After all, they are written in the bestselling book of all time, available just about everywhere. In it you’ll find the whole story—the story of a father who would go to any length to claim his children.