"Take my picture! I'm a princess!"

Zoe is a 3-year old who lives on base at Ten Thousand Homes with her parents, Zach and Anneke, and her sisters Arielle (4) and Charlotte (1). I LOVE visits with Zoe and her sisters, where princess dancing and putting on “lip stick” (chap stick… preferably “red” cherry) is always appropriate.

Zoe is at jussst the right age – Lifa-sized, extra-cuddly and the perfect little voice that I secretly wish she’d never grow out of. (Remember when YOU were 3, Lily???)

Lately, whenever Zoe sees me, she gets the biggest and most beautiful excited smile on her face and starts revving up those little legs for a long and dramatic run and leap into my arms. Patrick Swayze and Baby got nothin’ on us! Sometimes we even have to do it over and over again.

When this little princess showed up at my door on Easter morning with a little knock and big plans, I couldn’t help but think of the way God loves His children.

“You must take a picture of me Taaaccyyy. I’m a princess.”

She came over to be delighted in and daunted over. No problem here! So of course, I made her twirl as I took photos and told her how beautiful she is.

The running and jumping. The uncontrollable giggles that spring out at first sight of me… because of the running and jumping immediately following. The knock-knock-knock just to be seen and celebrated.

Children really do get it… Which, by the way, is not an original idea at all.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matt 19:14)

I try to earn my way. I try to set my place at the Kingdom-sized dinner table.

And then I think of Zoe.

And Lifa.

I found out yesterday we are having some trouble finding a day for us to make the 4-hour drive to pick up Lifa to come home for a visit for a while. Just a calendar blip, not a shut-down or change of heart by anyone in anyway. But devastated is an understatement for how I felt... or feel, and it didn’t take long for the life and energy to run out of me and make the Easter party-pooper.

But, as I was snuggling up on some adopted Ethiopian 3- and 4-year olds (unashamed that I was using their hugs and storybooks as personal therapy), I kept thinking about how I love Lifa and how unquestionably loved these once-abandoned Ethiopian children felt as they showed off their Easter goodies and demanded all of our attention.

Lifa doesn’t ever have to do anything for me to love him as much as I love him. Every bump in the road on our story – and no matter how our story plays out – only surprises me at how much I can love him and that I can actually love him more and more every day.

He could never earn this kind of love.

He couldn’t do anything to make me love him more or less.

And although he is tiny, helpless and doesn’t necessarily “contribute” anything to the family…

He is a most precious and dearly loved part of my family and the Family of God.

No expectations. No requirements.

That’s the story of the Family of God. My place and yours. Already set. Already paid for. It only takes a knock-knock-knock, and let the twirling begin!

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Luke 11:9-10

Easter is just one day to remember an every day promise. The promise of our adoption into the perfect Family. The Family that loves without condition, that welcomes you with outstretched arms for that classically undignified run-and-jump routine, and that only loves you more and more each day no matter where you are or what you do.

I spent the afternoon with my family in Mbonisweni. I pulled up in a little blue Mazda full of treats, cupcakes to be decorated, nail polish, a camera charged for a photo shoot, and an art project. (What’s a party without a craft? Oh man… Africa has changed me.) As we each colored a family member, I explained what Easter was all about.

“You love me so perfectly and welcome me into your family. That’s what Easter is. Jesus didn’t die on a cross just so we could be free of sin. He chose to make us pure so that we could be adopted fully into His Family – with no cost to us. Easter is a family holiday. An adoption celebration.”

Today I’m celebrating my place in the Family, and the place of all of His children. I’m praying to have arms open to catch every run and jump I can, and to run full-force, leap without regard, and to twirl around singing, “Take my picture! I’m a princess!”