Would You Help Bring My Grandson Home?

But it will take faith. Do we have enough?

Note: Underlined words are links to supporting material

For many of us, the COVID crisis has been personal and life changing. Some have lost loved ones. Others have lost jobs, homes and health. I am fortunate to not be among those, but it’s still personal.  

That’s because the pandemic has kept the world’s biggest ocean and more than 7000 miles between me and my grandson. Because of COVID-caused travel restrictions, my family can’t get to him and he can’t get to us. My oldest son Andy and his wife Jennifer have been in the process of adopting the child, named Judah, since he was four. He’ll soon be seven. He’s deaf. He’s their son. And though they have never met him, they love him.  

So do I.  

We are grateful to be surrounded by people who are praying for Judah. Like us, they pray that all foreign travel will resume so he can be united with his parents and siblings. We are grateful for the elected representatives who have made requests through diplomatic channels for hundreds of adoptive families to go inside otherwise closed countries and bring their kids home. Unfortunately we have been disappointed. Those countries look at the U.S. with its high number of COVID cases, its low vaccination percentages and our divisiveness over how to handle the pandemic and tell us, “Stay away.”

Equally disappointing is that some of the same people who have been working and praying on Judah’s behalf are also, by their actions, actually preventing those efforts and prayers from being fulfilled. I have talked with acquaintances who vowed to pray for Judah’s homecoming, while in the next breath they criticized the vaccination programs that could open the doors to bring that about.

Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate their prayers. But is it possible that the answer to our prayers is staring us in the face? What if the vaccine is the way God has chosen to answer this prayer and many others?—Prayers for critically ill loved ones to find a hospital that’s not overcrowded with COVID patients, prayers for the return of lost job opportunities, prayers from parents and teachers who want their kids to attend school free from the threat of serious illness, and prayers from Churchgoers who long to worship together again without the specter of disease hovering over the sanctuary door. Heck, many of us just pray for an end to the constant COVID-related arguments with people we love.

I once complained to a friend, “I could do some really good things if I had more to work with.” He looked at me and replied, “Well, what are you doing with what you already have?” Perhaps God’s way of answering our prayers is to force us to answer that question. Are we determined enough or brave enough or humble enough to stop asking for more and simply use what He’s already given us?

I believe with all my heart that our prayers will be answered, but I don’t believe we need some new “Parting of the Red Sea” miracle to do it. Through the grace of God and through the power of human intellect, we already have the necessary tools. I won’t spend time detailing the benefits of the COVID vaccines here; their effectiveness has already been proven nearly countless times over, at least to those with eyes to see and ears to hear.  

I recognize that I am in no position to judge someone’s mistrust in the vaccine without knowing his or her health or background or circumstances. My purpose is not to pass judgment on anyone’s action or inaction, but rather, invite readers to come reason together. I recognize that we don’t know everything we want to know about the vaccines. Likewise, before I had a major surgery several years ago I didn’t know everything about the procedure, but the operation did keep me from cancer. I don’t know how the ingredients in all my medicines work, but I know they do. My wife didn’t know everything about me before we got married nearly four decades ago, but we’re both grateful she took the risk.

The fact is none of us ever operates with omniscience. To one extent or another, we all live by faith. Every time we take medication, we exercise faith in the medical community. Every time we buy food from a grocer, eat in a restaurant, drink any beverage, enter any building, drive across a bridge or step onto an elevator, we exercise faith in the government agencies that exist for our health and safety. Taking the COVID vaccine requires the same level of faith, no more, no less.

Do I believe that God could end this pandemic without a single additional vaccination? Absolutely. Am I advocating we trust ourselves more than we trust God? Absolutely not. What I am advocating is that we trust in, and act on, God’s provision. Throughout history we see humans playing a decisive role in making God’s provision effectual. Yes, God parted the Red Sea, but the Israelites had the faith to step forward and cross over. In the desert God provided them with water, but He used the faith of Moses to get it for them. God gave them manna for daily sustenance, but they had to exercise enough faith to consume the strange new food.  

It would be presuming too much to equate the miracles of the Bible with human accomplishments, yet scripture is filled with many examples of God using faith-filled mortals to carry out His work. So I ask you to exercise your faith and please pray for my grandson. I ask that you pray that foreign governments open up travel from our country to theirs. But would you also be willing to be part of the answer to those prayers? Would you be willing to let go of fear and to trust those who have provided a way to save our lives, restore our health and livelihoods, and help end this pandemic? 

Because most likely, that’s the kind of faith that’s going to bring my grandson home.

© Nick Walker 2021

Click below to watch the story of my son and daughter-in-law’s wait for their son Judah.