Out of the Box!

Many times, life, real-authentic-messy-authentic life, doesn't fit into our neat little boxes.

On a special night in 1995 the world of my family was altered forever with the placement of a new foster child – an 8 week old girl. Several years later we had the great pleasure to adopt her into our hearts and family. When it came time to give her a name, we decided to just tack “Lowery” on the end of her given name – she now had 5 names. Her name goes from side to side on her birth certificate.

When we named her, we didn’t pay close attention to a hyphen that was placed between her birth surname, and her new surname. Many years later, my daughter came home from school angry. When I asked her what upset her, she explained that in school when her name was called, it was called under the “M’s” for McMillan, not the “L’s” for Lowery. “I’m not a McMillan, Dad, I’m a Lowery”. So we hired an attorney and had the hyphen removed.

Recently we received a phone call from the middle school guidance counselor who called to inform me that they had notified my daughter’s teachers of the change, but they had one more issue. In the school’s data system they use first name, middle initial, last name for each student, so what initial of her 3 middle names did we want to use. – Life didn’t fit their boxes.

My father is 82. A while ago he purchased genealogy software to help him put together our family history. As he began this task we soon discovered that the software doesn’t fit our family – they don’t have categories for us (I hear you snickering . . .). My father has been married four times, and has children by three of them. June’s grandson was living with her at the time of their marriage, and after their marriage, my Dad, adopted his new grandson . . . so my father’s grandson is my brother . . . see what I mean?

I am reminded that God doesn’t always fit in our boxes. How can the infinite be contained by the finite? He can’t! Our world measures success by popularity, by wealth, by influence. God measures by obedience, faithfulness, and faith. God is always about taking the foolish things of this world.

What about your life doesn’t fit neatly in someone’s box? What about your relationship with God is outside the box? Take time today to celebrate Life!