The weather is just awesome this weekend, and we LOVE playing outside. One of my favorite things is watching the kids run - full speed - across the yard. There's a special freedom in an open space on a sunny day.
It all goes up a whole new level when I watch Sofi's strength and freedom. She is a runner, and she beams with the best giggle and glow when she runs across the yard.
I have to give some testimony here, because God has literally breathed Life into this sweet girl before our eyes.
It's hard to verbalize all Sofi has overcome in a very short time. Her body composition when we first held her was beyond words. She had ZERO muscle tone. She was 3 years old, but could hardly keep on 18-month clothes. Her left foot sort of dragged as she walked. Poor nutrition and immobility had delayed her growth and development.
Almost immediately, we saw things change. By the end of the two weeks in China, she was choosing to walk and explore. In our first months home, we literally saw the muscle appear on her precious arms and legs.
You can see in this video from just a little over a year ago that she developed a special little gallop as her legs strengthened. This video was a highlight in the first months home. We were so thankful as she began to move better and better.
Her limp did not last long.
Her body changed, and Sofi has run miles and miles now.
This weekend I stood with the most thankful heart, watching all four of my blessings run free with kites. I can't even describe how beautiful it is.
Sofi has also finally grown tall enough in the last couple of months to reach her big wheels pedals.
I promised God from the very beginning that I would testify of His Love and miracles, because I knew there would be miracles. It brings me so much joy to share these videos with you.
There's so much more, though, that won't show through a video.
There is amazing physical evidence to God's Love and transformation in Sofi, but there is much more beneath the surface. Sofi has come to life and grown, even on the inside. Her personality
radiates now, and she gives and receives love like never before.
The Spirit of God has and is breathing Life in Sofi - and in all of us.
The Spirit of God gives life in the physical, but the real changes go far beyond what we can see. And the more He changes us, the more real the "invisible" becomes.
When God breathes, it billows into your core and surges Life into everything.
If you've experienced the breath of God, you know what I mean. If you
haven't - seek Him - ask Him. He has made us to need Him, and He wants
us to seek Him.
Ezekiel gives this awesome picture of the life-giving power of God's breath in chapter 37.
Verse 6 says, I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.
And we see even the beginning of life being formed with His own breath.
Once you experience Him as your source, you feel suffocated any time you step away. You cling to Him harder than scuba gear in the deep.
You know the reality of your Life-source, when you see the transformation: the change in priorities; the intensifying of love; purpose that supersedes the mundane.
When His Word becomes the source and guide for even the smallest obedience - you are drawing your breath from Him.
When your confidence has NOTHING to do with yourself - but a constant dependence on God.
The LORD makes firm the steps of the one who delights in Him; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with His hand. -Psalm 37:23-24
God has a way of securing our footing and stabilizing our steps, just like he has done for Sofi in the physical.
Paul proclaims in Acts 17:
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And
he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he
himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From
one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole
earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the
boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’
God is awesome!
I am so thankful for His Breath of Life - AWAKE MY SOUL
