Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3:12-14

There’s a lot in this passage. It talks about our new clothes, our wardrobe. Our adopted children had to learn new rules about hygiene. They became conscientious about having a napkin in their laps when they eat a meal, because they discovered that it really does catch food that is not successfully delivered into the mouth. They discovered new foods, and it was a little bit disorienting for them.

They loved McDonald’s in Ukraine. McDonald’s was the one American restaurant in their region of Ukraine. It was half an hour from their village, but the American missionaries took them there. The trips with the missionaries were the kids’ only introductions to life outside village life.

My wife’s maiden name is McDonald. Although we have no ownership in the company, the Ukrainians didn’t know that. An American named McDonald was a celebrity. Everywhere we went our translators made much of my wife’s maiden name. She was always Susan McDonald Wood. All of our legal documents included that name, and it spoke to the Ukrainians. By the time the children left Ukraine to come to the States – talk about being given a new name – our eldest Ukrainian son, William Stephen Wood, was introducing himself as Stephen McDonald Wood.

The kids loved the American diet at the Ukrainian McDonald’s. They happily ate there a lot. When they moved to America, McDonald’s was not the same, but it was familiar. There were certain things they missed that used to be part of their regular diet. In fact, when they were told that food would be different in America, one of Stephen’s main concerns was whether or not Americans eat Sala.

Sala is pig fat. He hoped to bring his suitcase full of Sala. I don’t think Sala would make it through customs. However, a lot of us want to do the same thing when we come to the Lord. We think we need our old diet, the stuff that used to give us a sense of security, a feeling of refreshment, comfort food, but God says, “No, I have something so much better for you, something so much better than pig fat.” Some people may find it offensive to hear pig fat spoken of so disparagingly, but if that’s your steady diet, you’re liable to have circulatory and other problems later in life.

We tend to want to do spiritually what Stephen wanted to do with his diet, even after we’ve come into a new relationship with the Lord and He’s already given us wonderful things, like His word for instance. His word is our bread. “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

How many times do we turn to other things thinking that they will be more refreshing, more strengthening? I do it. I have the best of intentions, but I’m not the most disciplined person.

I’m always glad as I spend an extended period of time in God’s word, but sometimes it’s easy for me to let it become perfunctory, a fast food approach to spiritual life. We’re supposed to learn to wait on and listen to God. I know what to do, but the old diet remains very tempting. If we fill up on pig fat, we won’t have an appetite for the good stuff.

When our children walked into our world and saw new unfamiliar things, it was off-putting. They just didn’t know what to make of some foods. They often weren’t sure they would like a particular food, so they didn’t want to try it.

God often offers us things that will be good for us, and we look at them and because they’re unfamiliar, we decide we don’t want what He offers. God says, “This is good food for you. This will nurture you and make you stronger. This will make you healthier.” We look at it and say, “I’m just not used to that. I don’t know what that would do to me. It might not taste good. I think I’ll pass. I’ll get something else later.”

Once again, our willingness to make the changes in our “diet” reflects the extent to which we trust our Father. Do we really believe that He knows what is best? Do we really believe that His intentions toward us are kind? Do we know that we are loved?

We serve a God who knows all things. He created all things. He created us. He knows what we need. He does what is best. And, as Paul reminds us in Romans 12, God’s will for us is “good, acceptable and perfect.” We need to let that truth shape our response to our Father’s provision and instruction. We need to be willing to do whatever He says, even if we don’t like it, because we trust His love. Certainly, our adventure in adopting these children is an example of how rewarding it is when we trust and obey.

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