Mine

"Not where I breathe, but where I love, I live." --Robert Southey

Have you ever noticed that one of the first couple of words kids seem to learn and subsequently overuse is mine. They will pull out every toy in their toy box and look you in the eye and say "mine." As if you were plotting on pulling a fast one on them and swiping their stuff. I once had a little girl keep insisting that the bracelet I was wearing was actually hers. She kept pointing at it and saying, "mine." I kept pointing right back to it and saying mine then pointing to me. One of her parents interjected that she wanted my bracelet and I should give it to her.

I knew her meaning, but I just wanted to be clear where the ownership lay before I lent it to her. It's not like I can walk into Macy's look at sweater say mine, take it and walk out. Ownership doesn't occur just because you want something and say it's yours. So what really makes something yours?

I watched a movie the other day in which a dad finds out when his daughter is 8 yrs old that he has been sterile his whole life and there is no way she is biologically his daughter. He is completely devastated and the wife tries to convince him that no matter what he is her dad because of all the time and love they have shared throughout the 8 years of her life.

I am not a parent and therefore do not have a full grasp of the experience. I am an aunt though and understand what it is like to love a child; and I do so dearly love each of my nephews and nieces. Biology doesn't matter to me in the least. Because one of my nieces is adopted it has no bearing on my love for her. I love her with my whole heart.

God's timing is so cool, I actually wrote the above section last week My little nieces who live two hours away just left today. I realized that some of my favorite qualities in my niece Mia might be a result of her first 11 months spent in the orphanage in China. She loves to give and receive affection and be close which might be because she lacked it when she was just one of many babies needing attention. Since she could walk she would suddenly put it in reverse and back up until she plopped down into my lap. Often she desperately reaches for me to pick her up and pleads insistently until I do. I love that, love it. Why does it touch me so deep to see in her eyes how much she wants me to hold her, pick her up and squeeze her tight; maybe because I want to do the same.

"So long as we love, we serve. So long as we are loved by others, I would almost say we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend." --Robert Louis Stevenson

So remember in the Bible the story about how King Solomon decides which woman is really the mother of the baby boy.

1 King 3:23-27
"The king said, "This one says, 'My son is alive and your son is dead,' while that one says, 'No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.' " Then the king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: "Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other." The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don't kill him!" But the other said, "Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!" Then the king gave his ruling: "Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother."

The mothers complete love for her child is shown in how she is willing to even sacrifice her ownership of her child for its wellbeing. Thus her love proves that she really is the mother, that the baby boy is really hers and not another's.
Mia is mine, in a way, she is mine because I love her so much. She is -my- niece. She will always be mine in my heart. She is my special little niece because I am special to her, she especially loves me and who couldn't respond in kind. I would do anything for her or for anyone I love for that matter.

"And I know I don't have much to give but I promise you, I'd give you all there is." --Mercy Me

Now how does one so little let me know I am special to her? When her parents told her that they were all going to Nana and Poppie's house the next day her response was, "Mei mei?" (thats my nickname with the kids) Thanks Mia for remembering who else will be there too! The day of the visit when they got her out of her crib in the morning they said, "We're going to Nana and Poppie's today!" and she reminded them again with, "Mei mei!." She is so smart and has such good taste. She actually even asked her mom to call me in her limited (a lot of telepathy) vocabulary. You would have thought I had won the lottery I felt so thrilled about that call.

For me everyone I have ever loved in my lifetime owns a piece of my heart. They always have a little square of residence there no matter what. Be they my childhood chums, high school homies or new co-workers, I can't help caring and wanting the best for them in their lives. And the absolute best is.... getting to know and love God.

"God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16

I want to be like little Mia with my Heavenly Father and reach up my hands and beg Him to sweep me up, hold me in His arms, pick me up off the floor and hold me tight. I want the same for everyone who has ever been mine in my heart. I want them to know the love of their Heavenly Father because it is beyond compare. Trust me, I know, I have a lot to compare it to.

"Reach up as far as you can, and God will reach down all the way." --John H. Vincent
Lord lead us to reach up to You, for all things. Help us to give our hearts away in love for all kinds of people. Lord please expand my heart and lead me to love as You do.

God bless you!
Love Always,
As
Heaven Helped me 11/11/08