I saw the movie Lion recently. It is a powerful telling of a true story about a little boy in India who gets separated from his family and transported on a train across the country, ending up 1,000 miles from his family. When he finally got off the train he was alone on the streets of a big city, sleeping on cardboard, hungry and vulnerable. I knew the story eventually ended well but I was still having trouble watching the parts where the little boy was all alone on the streets. I found myself holding back tears as I was watching this little boy by himself in a scary city, starving for food, starving for protection, starving for love. I was watching it and thinking, “Please hurry up and get to the part where he gets adopted.”

Some of the emotion I felt was because I know not every kid’s story ends well. In India, Brazil and Uganda I’ve seen kids like the one in the movie. Their faces are etched on my mind and heart forever. When I get tempted to foolishly think I have it rough I remember them. I wish I could do more to change their lives.

My emotion over watching that boy was not just because I felt compassion for ones like him, but I also can relate to him. I’m a literal orphan and without Jesus I would be a spiritual orphan, alone in a scary world. The little boy thought he could fend for himself and protect himself, but he was totally unaware of the danger and unwilling to admit his weakness. That’s me so often: thinking I can make it on my own, not wanting to admit my need. I need God’s protection. I need Him to take care of me. I’m a grown man who lives in a secure house with more food than I need, but deep down I’m a little boy who needs to be adopted, cared for and loved by the Heavenly Father.

It was a such a great scene in the movie when the boy finally got adopted. His parents chose him. They wanted him so they could love him and make him their very own. It’s an even better scene when we get adopted. The Lord wants us. “For he chose us … In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will” (Ephesians 1:4-5). It’s His pleasure and will to have us in His forever family.

I was longing for the adoption scene in the movie to hurry up and happen. I am so thankful the adoption scene in life in which the Lord adopted me has already happened. I hope that adoption scene has happened in your life as well.

Facebook had what was meant to be a cheerful announcement for me this morning: “It’s Deanna Stallings Leesman’s birthday today. Send her good thoughts!” I wish I could. But Deanna went to be with the Lord a little over two months ago.

I have many good thoughts and memories of Deanna. She was a friend and a special part of the congregation in Eugene where I used to serve as pastor. She battled cancer for about a year and this spring her battle came to an end.

Facebook is just a big company with a computer program that generates messages without understanding what all is going on. That’s the nature of the world. The world, apart from the Lord, doesn’t understand what is really going on.

We don’t understand why someone like Deanna, who meant a great deal to many people, is gone from this earth before her 58th birthday. But it is not the case that somehow God was unfair to Deanna in not letting her live a longer life. Facebook and the world do not understand that, while we are missing Deanna, Deanna is not missing out on life. Jesus gives the hope that, for those who have faith in Him, what is to come is more full of life and joy and love than anything this world can ever offer.

Facebook doesn’t understand that the best earthly thoughts we could send Deanna would not begin to come close to the beauty of the heavenly thoughts she is enjoying now.

Birthdays of those we mourn and other anniversary dates can bring a mixture of emotions. We pray for Deanna’s husband, Keith, and the rest of her family as they wrestle with those emotions. Facebook and the world do not understand the mixture because they only have part of what is in the mix. They know the sorrow, but you need to know Jesus to have hope included as part of the mixture. We grieve, but as the Bible says, not “like the rest of men, who have no hope” (I Thessalonians 4:13).

Some of the mixture of emotions for those who are in Christ is described in II Corinthians 4: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair. … Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

The list of things I don’t understand keeps getting longer. But I do know Jesus loves me. He died on the cross for my sins and He rose again from the dead and now He invites you and me to be in His family. I don’t understand why He is so gracious and loving, but I know He is, and that gives a peace that transcends all understanding.