I sit here in the night time silence and remember.
The air hung swollen that day, pregnant with rains ready to be delivered. The dry blowing out with fits and bluster begrudgingly making way for the wet to come.
I watched the winds blow the first real cloud cover we had seen in months onto our evening horizon.
That evening I wrote a story in pixels to send to “Grandmother” and “Grandfather” in America. (I bet my parents never guessed they’d have QUITE so many grand babies!) I must say I have raised camera happy children a world away. They are anything but shy of the lens. And a few of them are maestros behind it as well!
We sat in the fading light huddled together with bursts of giggles over silly shots and dramatic poses. I managed to sneak in a few “keepers” too.
All at once my crutches went walking away without me, held hostage by my then almost four year olds. ”Eh” I call out, “ITA- ita silu de, ita be arfa wa gobadu ana.”
Everyone dissolves into laughter as I tell my preschoolers: “You, if you take my crutches, you will have to pick me up and carry me. ” I think they strongly considered my response a challenge. I can only hop so far on one leg. {But oh how they have carried me these years in their prayers. Now feisty first graders, they carry me still. I am humbled to tears by a love so big it reaches across continents and oceans.}
I watched them turn the crutches I lean on into picture frames for my lens. I snapped away arresting time, freezing moments in place. I didn’t want the light to leave. I held it captive with my shutter and refused its departure.
Could the very thing the enemy meant to disable and destroy become that which frames the greatest release of God’s glory in our lives?
Some of you know my broader story. Born too early with multiple birth defects, 23 surgeries by age 13; standing on one leg, 2 crutches and an eternity of grace.
I have watched God turn the things meant to take me out into that which He has used to bring me in. Again and again and again. Into slums in India, leper colonies that refused any other witness. Into hostile trash dumps in Africa and onto national stages in Central Asia. Most of all, deeper into His heart. I am certain the enemy is regretting his efforts because every single one of them has backfired– his current attempts included.
Do I think it is God’s perfect plan for me to have one leg? Absolutely, categorically not. Do I know God is a good Papa who works ALL things together for my good? I stake my very life on it.
The limitations, challenges and obstacles that could disable me, when submitted to Jesus, become the very things that frame the greatest displays of His goodness in and through my life.
Impossibilities are His greatest invitations. Miracles can’t exist without them. {And how we are trusting for a miracle now, a miracle as big as our growing family from all over the world. We are radically trusting for each and every one of our children in South Sudan to be fully sponsored so we can keep our doors flung wide… }
Let me ask you my friends: what crutches, what challenges are you holding onto that God is waiting to turn into a picture frame for His beauty to be revealed in your life?
All He needs is your YES. He really will do the rest.
– Michele Perry: Artist, Author, Executive Coach & Founder of Iris Ministries work in South Sudan
blog: From the Unpaved Road | twitter: @micheleperry | work: Iris South Sudan | USA: Create 61, Edge Creative Consulting, LLC
