The story you are about to read is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent or something like that. The main character of this run down the ole rabbit trail is quite a remarkable young man. Let me introduce him to you.

I’ll call him “Billy” for the sake of this story. He was working his way through christian high school, not college but paying his own way though high school. That in its own right is unusual but he was also helping to support his family with the rest of his paycheck. This sounds heroic, but it gets better, he was doing this as a virtual orphan. As I understand the story, his mother and father split a few years back. Dad gets remarried and then he leaves. Thus Billy and his younger brother are virtual orphans living with the stepmother.

Little orphan Billy worked with another young man at a family eatery and they became good friends. After several months, Billy spent the night at his friends house unbeknownst to the friend’s parents. As the story was told to me, the father went into the living room and saw a body on the couch. Assuming it was his own son, he went over to give the boy a nudge and ask if he was going to go with them to church. The father was surprised by an unfamiliar grunt and a strange mop of hair poking out of the sheet.

Billy and his friend had been late getting out of work that Saturday night and, I’ll say “Frank” invited Billy to spend the night. At first the father was unsure of what to make of the whole deal, but Billy was a unique kid and worth the time to get to know. So, Billy became a more frequent figure on the couch and even was at the dinner table quite often.

One day the dad was joking with Billy and gave him the nickname, “Dopted Boy” and it kinda stuck. Now you need to know that I too have observed Billy and have gotten to know him and this is one neat kid. The family that opened their home to him reminds me a lot of how God treats us.

Think of it this way, we are rambling along through life and we get surprised by a tough spot, we keep on plugging along but we hit one pothole after another and find ourselves laying on a strange couch exhausted. In our own strength we try to keep things going, but none of us are that strong. We start out with what we think is security and safety only to have it all turned upside down in an instant and we find ourselves sleeping on a strange couch somewhere. Depending upon the couch you land on, can make a huge difference in the outcome.

If you drop down on the couch of all the pleasures of this current world, then I can assure you that this is as close to Heaven you will ever get. If, for example you fall down on God’s couch of grace, then no matter how bad it gets down here on earth, it is the closest you will ever get to Hell. As a guy whose job keeps him outside all year long in Florida, if Hell is hotter than this, I want no part of it. You would have to understand that it is not JUST the heat, it IS the humidity as well!

So, what is the point? Most often we can not control much of anything that happens to us in life, but we most definitely have a choice in how we react to what happens. Billy, I am sure, has had many questions over the years, and rightly so, but as long as I have known him, he has trusted in his Heavenly Father to take care of his daily needs. Life is good for ole Billy, Dopted Boy, his Dopted father in heaven has it all under control.

Stay tuned for another look at being “Dopted”, in the next Inside Out.

Your fellow servant in HIS service, Tim Meyer