I spent almost 30 years being petrified of having children. My parents had an oops baby at the age of 40 and I had watched tumultuous times with a toddler (and divorce) follow. Growing up, I was told that children are unpredictable and uncontrollable; what if I couldn’t cut it as a parent? What if some poor kid inherited all of my weaknesses?

When I first met Greta, she struck me as a warm, kind and beautiful person. She was studying to become a hair stylist and lived down the hall from my sister. Fast forward a couple of years… My sister and her friends had asked me to lead a small group bible study. At the time, Greta wasn’t yet part of the group. Randomly one day, I asked my sister how Greta was doing, to which she replied that she hadn’t really seen her much since school. The next day, Greta showed up at the salon where my sister works – just to say hi – and that is when we invited her to join our group (Greta lives 40 minutes away from that salon and was only there because she was visiting another friend in town; the coincidence of my having asked about her not 24 hours earlier even struck my sister as completely crazy). I knew then that God had a little something planned for Greta; What I didn’t know, was that there was nothing LITTLE about it.

Unless you wrestle through the darkness, you will never appreciate flying in the light.

When I was little, I continually asked Santa for wings. Apparently, I desperately wanted to fly! I’ll never forget the note I received from him one Christmas:

My Dearest Hailley,

Although I would love to give you the wings to fly right now, only God will give you those.

Love, Santa

rom the moment we are born, we desire it.
It’s what we experience with our parents, grandparents, children and with those precious ones who help us raise our children.

It’s what we feel when we are visited at the hospital, embraced tightly or cared for in the nursing home when our bodies grow old.

It is why evil and violence and abandonment feel wrong.