God’s Chuckle over Gray Hair




Have you ever made a pledge to God? A pledge is an earnest promise. Most Christians have at one time or another made some kind of a pledge with God. (Nu 30:2). Five years ago I made a pledge to God. Through the walking out of this pledge God has again reminded me of His gentle humor. I had just entered my sixty’s and we had just adopted our fifth child. We had four grown biological children, eleven grandchildren and now five children at home.
Eight years before I made a promise to God as I held a little dying boy in China. I promised God I would help every child that He would bring to me. We adopted three directly from China and now Asian children were coming after they had been adopted by another family and that adoption was not working out. Sure enough God was bringing them to us!
When the fifth child arrived at our home my hair was beginning to gray. My mother and grandmother not only had gray hair by my age, but theirs was white! It bothered me that our children might feel they had an old mom although I tell my kids you cannot call me old until I am eighty. For some reason it was important to me that they would not have a gray haired mom when they came home. I had a deep, strong feeling inside that there might be more children coming to our home. I made a pledge to God. I said, “My heart is open to love them and be their mom, but would You please keep my hair from going completely gray until the last one is home.” The next year my hair grayed and white hair was becoming visible around the edges. Then something unusual happened. An agency called and there was a little boy who needed a new family. My hair turned medium auburn again and the gray was hard to find. Sure enough little Luke came home.
After he was home my hair began to gray again. We got call from another agency that had a boy who needed a new family. My hair turned back again and Peter came home. By then I was beginning to get the picture of what was happening. Each time it would begin to gray I thought, “This is it! Our family is complete.” Some of my friends made comments about my lack of gray hair. A couple of years ago I began to share with them about the pledge I made with God and His faithfulness and humor in walking this pledge out.
My hair grayed again after Peter came, that was until a family contacted us that their adoption was not working and they needed to find a new family. After Mercy came home I thought, “Surely we are finished adopting Lord”. My hair was turning gray rather nicely and I was enjoying it.
That was until we got a call from an agency asking us to open our home to another child and sure enough my hair turned back to auburn. And, God even brought us another child after Patience before my hair could even begin to gray again! We had a good laugh about that one! “Surely we are through now Lord!” I prayed.
My hair grayed for a few months and then we got another call from an agency about a boy that needed a new family. My hair turned back again and we brought home another son. With our last son we were out of the car space and tight in our house we call the ark. We got a large van and thought, surely our quiver is full now Lord! When I get to Heaven we are going to have a laugh together about this one! (Ps 126:2).
My hair is graying again. We will see…