Melting moments

By Scott Worley

Perhaps Psalm 8 says it best…From the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength.  I love this verse, yet only very recently have I begun to truly understand why, as I’ve seen it lived out.

I still vividly remember that day in August 2009 when I was visiting my parents in the US.  I knew it was the right time to share the news that I was seeing someone in South Africa, that she was in fact the love of my life, that I wanted to ask her to marry me, that I wanted to bring her home that Christmas to meet them…and that she is Xhosa.  Whew, quite a lot to take in I’m sure!  I knew it would be a difficult conversation, challenging in so many ways considering such a seeming ocean of racial and cultural difference with so many accompanying fears and concerns.  What might we experience as an interracial couple in South Africa of all places, with its still recent troubled past?  What might our children thus go through as they grow up?  What might other family and friends think?    Would all of our seemingly extreme differences create more trouble than happiness in the long run?  Yet as much as all this was to take in, bless their heart, mom and dad felt my own heart in the matter, loved me and gave me their blessing to invite Yolanda into our home. 

The result?  All that fear largely fell away the moment everyone met.  My parents and all their friends loved Yolanda!  (Really, who in their right mind wouldn’t?)  And a mere few months later, there we all were together again, this time in East London, as different families and nations and cultures all came together under one roof to celebrate our wedding!  What an exhilarating feeling, on top of everything else that glorious day, to see God at work, transforming former separation into newfound unity and paving the way toward new unforeseen horizons of possibility.  I had stepped out in faith, acting on God’s voice in my heart, and my family and friends I grew up with were somehow experiencing enrichment in their own lives as a result.

Well just last week I have experienced yet another milestone on this journey, as mom and dad came to visit us and to meet their beautiful granddaughter Olivia for the first time!  Their arrival at the airport was utterly surreal, as I watched them reach out and embrace her…family meeting family, shared blood converging from across the world and across generations, young gazing in wonderment upon old, old teary eyed and beaming with smiles upon young.  Labels based on perceived differences, which tragically control and imprison so many in our world, had no place here.  There was only love and joy and celebration and thanksgiving at this beautiful, innocent new life, our perfect gift from God.  As a result, mom and dad are simply proud grandparents anew yet again (my brother and his wife have three children already!).  They now have first-hand experience with Olivia’s unconditionally loving way, not to mention her unending cuteness and the utterly undoing beauty in her eyes, which she inherited from mommy.

So did Olivia have to strain and struggle and strive, meeting with top level global advisors and devising complex socioeconomic strategies, in order to overcome such a world of societal boundary lines and separation?  No.  She simply was…who God made her to be. 

And this love has opened up a universe of new dimension and possibility in my parents’ lives, as they have been brought closer…and closer…and closer still to the heart of God, with enhanced understanding of His love for all His children.  This will in turn positively affect how they continue to live, and undoubtedly all those whose lives they touch - making the world a more beautiful place where differences are increasingly embraced, celebrated and ultimately shared, rather than pushed away, judged and condemned.  THIS is nothing short of miraculous, and comes from a source far stronger in power than the best laid plans of mice and men.

From the mouths of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength… 

Our beloved 8-month-old Olivia…what strengths could such a baby possibly have that can change the entire world?  Well, for starters she is a daughter of the most-high God, a unifier, a reconciler, a peace maker, a bridge builder, a love giver, an identity proclaimer, a horizon expander, a life celebrator, and a heart melter…

Yes, go ahead, I dare you…Gaze into her eyes, let her draw you in, and let the pure colours of her love melt your heart.  Then look within the resulting puddle, behold your own reflection and see more clearly who God has made you to be!