Identity...

Have you ever stopped to look at the intricacy of your fingerprints or the markings on the palms of your hands? Every line and curve was uniquely set in place by the God who created you, and each one tells who you are and has the potential to record what you have done. Your very identity rests in this pattern on your skin, at least on the surface. The Bible also tells us that the eyes of our Father saw our unformed bodies. He knows how many hairs are on our heads, and all the days of our lives were written in His book before we even existed! Praise God! Oh, if only we would be diligent to seek His guidance to follow HIS plan for each of these days... After all, He knows who you are, what you will do, and what you will become.

Yesterday, DoubleT and I had our fingerprints taken for our adoption paperwork. We had to wait a few minutes, but once the officer taking the fingerprints arrived, it did not take long. It was actually a fun experience for me. I haven't had my fingerprints done since I was a little girl, unlike my international, now proud U.S. citizen husband who has had them done more times than he would like to count! LoL!! The first picture is him having his fingerprints done, and the second picture is me on my way to the sink to wash my hands without getting ink on my white shirt :-).

That is one baby step in the process done, one partly done (medical forms), and lots more left to do. So, what's next? Reference letters! We will send the forms out to the people who have agreed to tell what they know about us and wait to get their letters back.

You know, this process can be quite overwhelming, which is just part of the reason I backed off so much for a few months. At times, it can also seem a little unfair, but I don't want to dwell on that because those thoughts are just a pit which leads to depression. Instead, I have asked God to use each experience to teach me something and to continue to mold me to be more like Him.

So, what did I learn from being fingerprinted? Well, after completely covering my fingers with black ink, which again, I thought was a BLAST, I washed my hands. The officer said it should all come right off, and on my left hand, he was correct. On the other hand (pun intended :-)), the ink on my right hand was not so cooperative. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but a few light stains remained. As I looked at my hand, I thought about how similar sin can be in our lives. We try to scrub it off, but it just won't go. We work at it as hard as we can, but the spots are still there. You see, we can't do it on our own. Only Jesus blood contains the right formula to remove the sin from our lives.

You might have to click on the following picture to see the details, but my thumb just didn't want to let go of all the ink. Throughout the day, I washed my hands several more times, and eventually the marks faded and went away completely. Thinking back, though, it still occurred to me that, even when we have been forgiven and covered with the blood of the Lamb, sin can still cause us trouble. Others might not see it, but it does its damage beneath the surface. It might not be a big sin, but not giving it the proper attention only makes us more used to its presence in our lives and less sensitive to the destruction it can cause. We must continually be alert to completely "wash our hands" with the soap of confession so that the grip sin has on us fades away and becomes less and less... just like the ink on my hands. Only then can our daily identity in Christ be unhindered, as we become more and more like Him!

Preparing our fields...