I have been a mom for a little over 9 years. At this season most people would know me as being a mom of 4 kids. I come in with a (fairly well behaved) circus. It wasn’t always this way. There was a season where I was known more for being the lady who really wanted kids.
While I have been a mom (through the miracle of adoption)
for 9 years, I found out I finally had a viable pregnancy about 8 years ago. We
were still just thrilled God had given us ONE baby, yes, we wanted more but we
were not going to ask for too much. Then this second miracle baby was on his
way and we had to name him.
It would sound really cool to say that I poured over my
Bible and found just the perfect name for our second son. It didn’t happen that
way at all. The real story is we wanted a second name from the Bible, then
sorted through names we liked or people we would want to name our kids after. That
is how we came upon Joel’s name; we both respected a family friend named Joel
and decided to name our son after him and it was just super convenient the name
was also in the Bible.
Confession: I am not certain I read the book of Joel any
time in the decade before I wrote that name on a birth certificate. I did look
up the meaning of the name, “the Lord is God”, which seemed a fitting name for
a baby who was such a miracle. So, there was that.
Fast forward a bunch of years and recently a preacher referenced
a verse from the book of Joel. Not a common book to come up in a sermon. Fun
fact, I learned recently in my studies that Bible scholars don’t even know
enough about Joel to know what time frame he was even alive during the years of
the Old Testament so he doesn’t come up much.
But that verse? I hadn’t found just the perfect name for
Joel, but God had. The book of Joel talks a lot about bugs. Lots and lots of destructive
bugs. Then, in Joel 2:25 God says, “I will restore to you the years the swarming
locust has eaten…” (ESV). God will restore the lost years. The hard years. The
years of so much sadness. God will restore them to Israel.
I love it! I had these years where I had miscarriage after
miscarriage. I had no way of knowing in that season that I would one day give
birth to three babies. The “years of swarming locusts” doesn’t feel like too dramatic
of a spin for the depths of infertility. Turns out God had a restoration plan for me,
too.
Today I look at Joel and think “these are the restored years”.
I didn’t really expect one biological child, much less three of them. Joel is
my in-the-flesh reminder that God restores. When the current season isn’t going
quite like I wanted, Joel is my reminder that God has a way bigger plan than my
wants. I think God knew my faith would need some really tangible reminders,
reminders I could actually hug and snuggle, that He is the God who restores.
