New Hope Christian Fellowship

Recently my little sister turned 30. For her big three-oh, she wanted to have a New York themed party. Along with the nights activities of food, games, music, and dancing was a slide show about her growing up. It was full of pictures showing her growing up from an infant to now. It was set to music, perfectly timed, and matched to different messages in the songs. It was beautiful. I should know; I made it for her.

I worked on that video for a week. Along the way to making a gorgeous video, I got to see how my family was shaped and guided by God’s hand. It was an amazing story to watch unfold as I processed & edited two hundred pictures of my sister. Her story started with her biological parents, my aunt and uncle, and her brother. As the pictures progressed, scenes showed the “passing” of a little girl, and her brother, to the parents who would love and raise them both along side their own two children. This was our family story.

When I was little, all I understood was that my cousins were coming to live with us and they would become my brother and sister. That lead to years of sibling rilvary that the world hasn’t seen since Cain and Abel, but with out the violent bloodshed in the end. During my high school and college years, I gained a sense of acceptance about my family, but never really talked about my family outside of…my family.

Making the video for my sister changed all that. For the first time in 23 years, I really understood God’s design in bringing about our family the way he did. It was all there, clear as day. He did it out of love. Love for my two cousins-turned siblings-in giving them a family to belong to. Love for me and my brothers by showing the blessings of opening our hearts to others. Watching my sister’s slide show, I realized that God has given my family more than we could ever hope for. He’s given us more than we deserved. He’s given to us beyond any measure of what we expected.

I’m going to end this piece with some words written by a man whose life didn’t go the way he expected it to. He lost his first wife to cancer in his early twenties. Through that painful experience, God lead him down a road of ministry through music. He eventually did marry again and now has two beautiful daughters as well as a blooming music ministry. He was able to look back and see the blessings God had given him. In making the video for my sister, I was able to look at my life and see the same. We both know that we’ve been given more than beyond measure by a loving God. I hope you can say the same.

I know that I’ve been,
Given more than beyond measure,
I come alive when,
I see beyond my fears
I know that I’ve been given more than earthly treasure,
I come alive when
I’ve broken down and given you control
~Jeremy Camp