Tonight a book I’m reading, Superadded by Hosanna Wong, was talking about the family of God, which is something super dear to my heart. My family growing up could’ve been labeled as “broken” – although I prefer the term “blended” – so learning and teaching about how God brings his people into his family [community!] has always been something that I get SO hyped about. The author wrote that…
“Through men of God, [God] is providing fathers.
Through women of God, he is providing mothers.
Through the family of God, through His Church, God is providing mentors, teachers, big sisters and brothers, best friends, companions, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters – God wants to add onto our lives a family that is far larger than we could have ever imagined.”
And man, that just stirs my heart with JOY for the way our Father operates his Kingdom, his FAMILY.
I love this message so much in fact that, a couple months ago, I wrote a spoken word piece on this very subject. [I wrote it with the intention of it being spoken word, but feel compelled to share it now just in written form.] It poured out of my heart one night onto the page as I reveled in how sweet the Lord has been to me in restoring family to me in SO MANY WAYS. The people I consider my girls are of the most precious to me in this story of redemption I think. The Father is sweet like this, so I feel compelled to share my heart. 
My Girls
I used to dream of a sister,
A best friend by blood,
A partner
In crime, in style, in mind.
Anytime I needed her
She’d be there,
To help me and shape me,
To make me into the person
She saw I could be.
Funny, I always dreamed of an older one,
A girl I knew would take on the world for me.
And instead,
God gave me so many little ones.
Now don’t be confused,
My mother is a mother to one, me.
But you see God gave me more.
Because when I felt alone
He sent me sisters to come around me,
To life me up, to restore me.
He heard me cry out,
And I have zero doubt in my mind
That he sent me truth-speakers,
Some full of grace and some healers.
But just a few, No, he said,
That isn’t enough blessing for my little girl
Who always wanted a sister.
So he sent me teachers and believers,
True friends who saw me,
Some different and some just like me
To reveal all of Your beauty,
And how You adore and restore family.
I said, surely your kindness is too much.
But then God sent me a few teenagers
To wreck me and build me
To be the sister I always dreamed of,
The sister I really needed,
The sister he created me to be.
He gave me some to teach me to listen,
To not judge by appearances,
To look beneath the exterior
And to find what was hidden there.
He sent a few more to grow me,
To speak identity over me
Without even knowing it.
He sent me some to inspire me,
To awake passion and creativity inside me,
Sent some to challenge and redefine me,
And still others to remind me
Of how our Father loves deep laughs, fierce hugs, and brave words.
But then I found a couple girls,
Hurt and a bit abused,
Broken images filled their minds,
Lies were winning time after time.
But I heard You say, “They’re mine,
And I want them back.
So go get your little sisters,
We’ll fight for their hearts
With truth that’s richer
Than lies of worthless and forgotten,
Overlooked, screwed-up, besotted.
Bring them back into my house,
Remind them they’re not thrown-out.
They’ve a purpose and identity,
Assure them that they’re my family,
That I track their hurt hearts down
By sending them big sisters
To weave blessing into every braid,
To show them for what they’re made,
And, most importantly, to demonstrate
That I’m the keeper
Of their hearts, their hopes, and their dreams.
So no, child, I didn’t give you a bio sister
Because I didn’t want you to miss this
Sweet picture of my love
Poured out through my whole family
Not in blood, but through a grafting.
Adoption to sonship is my business,
So in case you still don’t see it,
I’ve given you a thousand sisters.
From the little girl who needs a friend
To tell her what she could never sense
On her own and in isolation,
That she’s worthy and that she’s chosen.
To the friend I knew you needed
But you never dreamed would be the
Sweetest picture of my heart for my girls.
To the one that I’m still after,
She’s dying, her heart burns out of her
Each night as she begs
To be known and seen.
Her story, it needs redeemed
By a father with so much power,
Strength enough to fix a shattered
Life of forgotten identity.
So track her down, pursue her.
You know my heart, so use it’s
Vision to see the sisters
I’m still calling back to me.