Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. – Psalm 139:16
This story was recently featured on the Bosnian web portal klix.ba. I came across it the other day, and couldn’t help but click, read, and research the story a bit in the American media. Here’s a link to the Klix version of the story (Bosnian language). This is my take on it, as a father of three.
Abigail Lynn Fisher was born on January 11, 2016, with a rare disorder called Treacher Collins syndrome. In the months leading up to Abigail’s birth, her mother, Kristina, was single and “practically homeless” — short on money and unprepared for the challenges of raising a child. So she went to an adoption agency and found a couple from Georgia who was looking to adopt. No one yet knew of Abigail’s condition.
Time for the birth
When the time for Abigail’s birth came, the Georgia couple came down to Florida to be present at the birth of their new daughter. Everything was set for Abigail to have a home with parents who had been unable to have a child naturally, who would love her and raise her as their own. But then, tragedy struck.
The parents-to-be saw Abigail, saw her unusually shaped head and eyes, and left the hospital, distraught. They had wanted to adopt a child, but not one that had a condition like Abigail’s.
An impossible dilemma
Abigail’s mother, in the midst of this tragedy, decided to keep Abigail and take her home, instead of trying to find someone else to adopt her. Amazingly, Christina Fisher — “practically homeless”, poor, and unprepared for parenthood — showed a conviction and character that Abigail’s parents-to-be had lacked.
There is one who won’t back down.
When God says in the Book of Psalms that he, “formed my inward parts” and “knitted me together in my mother’s womb,” (Psalm 139:13) he means that he had a purpose for creating each of us. In God’s world, there are no accidents — every person is “fearfully and wonderfully made”.
It is the foundation of the Bible story — that God, in his great love for each of us, endures the punishment that we deserve, so that we can experience life with him. All of our skills, strengths, weaknesses, and deformities, are accounted for in God’s wonderful plan — there is nothing about us that he doesn’t know.
And unlike the couple in Abigail’s story, he will not back down from his promise — he will adopt us into his family, and make us children of God.