Last Updated on March 21, 2018
“Mrs. DesCarpentrie, do you have room for one more?”
It’s a question I have been asked several times from a Department of Children & Family Services caseworker, scrambling to find a home for a desperate and scared child. It’s a tough question. Do I have an empty bed? Is there an extra seat in my van? Do I have room at my table, in my laundry basket, in my heart?
Sometimes I have to reply, “I’m sorry, but there’s no more room.” And it breaks my heart. Every bed is full, there are no more seats in the van or at the table. I have to admit that there are times where I feel too full in my heart and in my life. That I just can’t handle one more.
I wonder what the innkeeper was thinking when a desperate expectant father arrived at the door with his very-pregnant wife so many years ago and was asked, “Do you have room for one more?” Did his heart break having to say that every bed was full and there were no more seats at the table? Or did he shake his head in frustration, unable to handle just one more?
I have to admire his offer of the stable. Thinking outside the box, he found one more place. A God-ordained place. A humble beginning, but just enough room for a King.
During this busy Christmas season, we will frequently be presented with requests for “just one more.” Do we have time for just one more party, can this child have just one more toy, do we have room at our table for just one more guest, and maybe even asked if we have room for just one more desperate child. I am praying for the wisdom to choose the God-ordained “just one more” and not fill our busy lives with the insignificant “one mores.”
I want to have room in my heart and my home for the King.
We’re sharing ideas and ways we can serve others on our Facebook page all month long. Please join us and share your ideas too?
Julia DesCarpentrie is passionate about orphan care, adoption and fostering. Payday loans online. She has been blessed to live out God’s call on her life in those areas through her work with The CALL (Children of Arkansas Loved for a Lifetime), a foster care church initiative encouraging more Christian families to foster children in need. Julia has been an advocate for the fatherless for 10 years, as both a volunteer and also serving with Hope for Orphans before her work with The CALL. She is also an active volunteer in the community and has served on several community boards. She continues to minister to other mothers and foster/adoptive families through writing and speaking with MomLife Today. Julia is the mom of five children entrusted to her care through birth, adoption and fostering. She and Branden have been married for 16 years.
Great one, Julia. You have such a heart for others. Making room in your heart for Jesus seems to have expanded your heart to where you have almost infinite room for “just one more.”