The Real Meaning of Life

I have an adopted special needs daughter, formerly a foster child. She is special needs, mentally retarded, and despite turning 32 this year, she has the mind of a two year old.

Top that off with being a Type 1 Diabetic, having multiple seizure disorders and psychiatric problems she is often, well as one of my friends would say, a “hot mess”.

But today, she brought a valuable lesson in faith.

Because she’s diabetic, she has to drink lots of water, which she hates. She’s already small in stature with tiny veins and if she gets dehydrated, it takes a very talents and experienced nurse to find a vein and insert a catheter into it. And in a medical emergency, starting an IV on her is a definitive must.

She’ll drink soda all day, like any other child, but water? It takes an act of Congress, and even then, the Justice Department has to get involved to enforce the act, and they have to bring a negotiator.

Yet I’m not hard core, I try to make it flavorful by adding a zero sugar water additive. Usually the additive, which she calls Kool-Aid or “juice” has an artificial color to it, but the last ones I’ve bought are clear.

Today she held up a bottle of water and said, “Kool-Aid?” I responded with, “I put Kool-Aid in it this morning.” She looked at the bottle again, then held it up to me, “Kool-Aid?” I reiterated, “I put some in this morning.” She didn’t believe me; she couldn’t see the Kool-Aid in the bottle. Finally I had to use my father-voice, “Take you helmet off (she has to wear a helmet for the seizures) and take a drink! It has Kool-Aid in it!”

She reluctantly did what I said, very slowly put the bottle up to her mouth, then paused. Finally, and begrudgingly I might add, she slowly tipped the bottle of water up to take a sip. As soon as she tastes the artificially sweetened artificially flavored watermelon drink additive, she then tipped the bottle up and started gulping.

I didn’t know it at the time, but God spoke to me and these words came out of my mouth. “It’s like God, just because you can’t see Him doesn’t mean He’s not there.” So here’s the lesson from home today.

You do know that God is here, right? His Spirit is with you. He watches you when you sleep, He’s with you when you go out to dine, He’s with you at work, and He’s even with you when you take a shower. I know you can’t see Him, but trust me, He’s there.

We can’t see oxygen, but we know it’s there are we would die. We can’t see clear color drink additive, but it’s there. And we can’t see God, but He’s there. And here. And everywhere. And He wants to be in your heart if you will let Him.

When God gave us The Ten Commandments, He wrote them on stone with His own finger, so we would not forget them (you know the saying, it’s written in stone). He even instructed them to put the tablets inside of a sacred ark to protect them, then gave strict instructions on how to preserve the ark. But that didn’t work; we forgot. So He sent Jesus to earth to remind us of The Ten Commandments and to put them in our heart so we carry them around with us. But the Spirit has the commandments, so if we want to carry them with us at all time, and we should want to carry them, then we have to let His Spirit in as well.

He’s there. You just have to have faith. And once you take that first sip of God, you’ll start gulping Him down. And there will be time when your faith has to be refreshed, renewed. That’s why churches used to have revivals, to revive us and our faith.

Don’t let your eyes deceive you. He’s there. He’s always been.