finitum non capax infiniti

I know I said I wasn’t going to blog this week, but this is the one exception because its so different from anything I’ve written on this blog before…and because it has been something I really wanted to write about for a long time.

I realize that most times on this blog I am either talking about theological issues or the Boston Red Sox…which is because those are two things that I absolutely LOVE talking about. By doing this, I also realize that I do not talk much about other aspects of my life. So, here is a post that is out of the ordinary, a post about something personal.

The picture that you are looking at is a picture of my little “nephew” Manny. When I first moved to the Philadelphia area to attend Westminster in the summer of 2005, I moved in with my cousin Amy and her husband Meade. Meade was a youth pastor at a church in Havertown and they lived in a 3-bedroom house that the church owned. Amy had gone through a few miscarriages, so they decided to adopt. The plan was that I would get one bedroom, their adopted son would get the other bedroom, and they would, obviously, have the master bedroom.

As these things go, by the time I moved in Amy was in her second trimester, a place she had yet to get with her other pregnancies. So things were looking good. I moved into their attic, which was small, but I was living there for free and was more than happy that they even offered for me to live there.

The first two months I lived there it was just Amy, Meade, and I. Amy and I grew up together in Northeastern Pennsylvania (Dunmore, right outside of Scranton), but I hadn’t been in contact with her that much after her and I went to college and I barely knew Meade. Despite this, we got along great. My time living with them was amazing. Amy and Meade are two of my favorite people in the world and I’m so thankful that I was able to live with them. They opened my eyes to the teaching of Tim Keller, to the need for Christians to pursue the causes of social justice, and the need for Christians to pursue urban ministry (Amy was a social worker at a school in West Philly, where I worked for that first summer). To put it another way: Amy and Meade were, and still are, very influential in my thinking and are the kind of people that everybody should have in their life.

That August Amy and Meade flew to Guatemala to finish the adoption and bring home their son, Emanuel Antonio Castro-Baker, a.k.a. Manny. I call him my “nephew” because he calls me Uncle Art. I’m not sure what relationship we “technically” share and, honestly, it doesn’t even matter. I love that kid more than I could have ever thought. Here is a picture of Manny and I a few days after he came into my life and Amy and Meade’s family.

I learned the most from experiencing Amy and Meade bringing an adopted son into their lives. Living there, I saw two people completely love, care for, and nurture a son who was not their physical offspring. By experiencing this I was able, for seemingly the first time, actually grasp the concept of Christians being adopted into the family of God. Manny was not just some kid that Amy and Meade allowed to live with them and decided that, even though he wasn’t their own, they would take care of him. Rather, he is their son. They don’t love him despite the fact that he didn’t come from them, they don’t even let that fact come into the equation. They love him unconditionally. He is their child.

I’m sure that anyone who has either adopted a son or daughter or has experienced this situation through the lives of friends or family understands what I am saying. Every time I think about it I am almost brought to tears. There are few times in life that physical reality can so clearly convey a deep spiritual truth. Adoption is one of them.

In January, Amy gave birth to a healthy girl named Aderyn. This was also a new experience for me. As I sat in the hospital with Amy and Meade after the birth I was in total awe. Meade asked me what I thought and I looked him in the eyes and said, “You two just created a soul. Doesn’t that blow your mind?” Obviously my mind was blown.

It was an adventure to be attending seminary full time and then come home to two little children. And when I say “adventure” I mean one of the best times of my life. I moved out that summer to live in the city and be involved with the urban, missional ministry of liberti. It wasn’t until I moved out until I realized just how amazing of a time it was living with Amy, Meade, Manny, and Aderyn.

My favorite thing to do is not get an A on papers or ace a final. It’s those days I have off when I can go visit Amy, Meade, Manny, and Aderyn. I love them all so much and they mean more to me then they probably realize. They have given more to me than I could ever repay. From talking to Meade about Lost or post-evangelical theological systems to talking to Amy about the life of a pastor’s wife or the struggles of working in West Philadelphia, to spending time with Manny and trying to convince him that baseball is the best sport ever created and the Red Sox are the only valid team a smart person would ever cheer for, to watching Aderyn jump up and down for hours in her bouncy chair that hung from the door frame, to experiencing a physical manifestation of a spiritual reality…it was one of the best times in my life.

Here is Manny and I when Manny is all decked out for my cousin Rachel’s wedding.

And here is a picture of Manny and Aderyn. They are the best!

And here is a video that Meade made. It’s Manny dancing to his favorite song and it’s awesome.