Choosing to SEE - Mary Beth Chapman [104]
Emily and Tanner, off at Belfast Bible College, had befriended a Chinese student. One winter evening, Emily was sitting with her new friend, Sophia, and asking her questions about speaking Mandarin, which Emily had studied in college. On a whim she asked Sophia about the English meaning of Maria’s Chinese given name. Emily didn’t know the Chinese characters for it, just the English phonetic spelling.
“Chun Xi,” she told her friend. “It’s my little sister’s name.”
“Oh,” Sophia said. “Chun . . . this means ‘spring.’ And let’s see, Xi means ‘twilight,’ or ‘dawn,’ like ‘spring is on the horizon,’ or like ‘spring is coming.’ Yes, that’s it. In English you would say ‘spring is coming’!”
Emily couldn’t believe it.
Our Maria had been given her Chinese name by an unknown social worker at an orphanage in China soon after she was abandoned at two days old. Because we had met her as “Maria” when she was already with the Hedden family, we didn’t think much about researching her Chinese name. We knew it was Chun Xi, but with Maria being Chapman number six, we hadn’t taken the time to explore it further.
And now, years later, in the winter of our grief, we were living the poignant title of Steven’s song . . . and finding out that her very name meant the exact truth that was sustaining us all: Spring is coming.
When Emily called us from Ireland, we were stunned by this amazing story that some might call coincidence. We knew that God had given us another glimpse of the story that He is telling, one He had orchestrated from the beginning of time. He knew what the Chinese social worker in a communist country would name an abandoned orphan . . . and He knew that Steven, grieving his precious daughter’s death, would name the last song on his CD the exact meaning of her original name.
Incredible.
We Chapmans are big on due diligence. Emily got a copy of Maria’s birth name in its Chinese characters and brought the paper to her Chinese friend.
“Ah, I see,” her friend said. “This is very similar, but more specific. The name means ‘spring river’!”
We found that name to be even more significant. A spring river results from the melting away of winter’s snow. The purest water flows from spring rivers . . . God’s means by which formerly frozen ground can soften and bloom again with the life of spring.
So God confirmed this truth yet again: I can choose to SEE His story, or I can miss it. And I know – in the winter of our grieving and the frozen mourning of my plans that will never be and my dreams that have died – the reality is this: God’s warm breath is on the move. New life is budding . . . and often where I expected it the least, like right inside of me.
So where better to end this book?
Yes.
Spring is coming . . .
“Spring Is Coming”
We planted the seed while the tears of our grief soaked the ground
The sky lost its sun, and the world lost its green to lifeless brown
Now the chill in the wind has turned the earth hard as stone
And silent the seed lies beneath ice and snow
And my heart’s heavy now
But I’m not letting go
Of this hope I have that tells me
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
And all we’ve been hoping and longing for
Soon will appear
Spring is coming, Spring is coming
It won’t be long now,
It’s just about here . . .
Acknowledgments
Where does one who has so many to bless and thank begin? When the accident happened, two years ago at the writing of this, I would never have imagined the journey that I would go through personally. I’ve come to the conclusion that even if it were just one book that ended up on my bookshelf, the process would have been worth it. The writing of this book has taken me to the depths of my pain that I haven’t visited in a long time, and I am grateful for a tender Savior who journeyed with me through some of the darkest places a person can journey. Thank You, Jesus, for shining light in areas that continue to help in the healing process. For where I have been wounded, you are binding me up and turning