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A
Joyful Reunion
Steve
Flaig, of
Grand Rapids
,
Michigan
, had always known he was adopted.
On his 18th birthday, he decided
that he wanted to try to find out the identity of his
birth mother. His
adoptive parents, Pat and Lois Flaig, supported him in
his decision.
Flaig
asked D.A. Blodgett for Children, the agency that
arranged his adoption, for his background information.
He received the information a couple of months
later, and it included his birth mother’s name.
Flaig’s
birth mother, Christine Tallady, who was single and
very young when Flaig was born, left the adoption
record open, thinking her son might want to contact
her someday....She was right!
When
Flaig received his mother’s name, he began searching
the Internet for her address to no avail.
But last October, after searching for four
years with no results, he realized that he had been
spelling his mother’s surname incorrectly as “Talladay.”
When he typed “Tallady” into a search
engine on his computer, he came up with an address
less than a mile from the Lowe’s store where he
worked.
Excited
about his possible find, he mentioned it to his boss
at Lowe’s. In
amazement, his boss said, “You mean Chris Tallady,
who works here?” Flaig was stunned.
For
the next several weeks, he said, “I would walk by
her, look at her from a distance, not knowing how to
approach her.” Should
he just walk up to her and say, “Hi, I’m Steve,
your son.” What
if she rejected him?
Finally,
on Friday, December 14, 2007, Tallady and Flaig, who
had known each other casually as co-workers for
several months, met for the first time as mother and
son.
It was a tearful and joyful reunion. *
When
you and I were born, we belonged to God by right of
creation. However,
due to our sin, we became separated from Him (Isaiah
59:1-2). But
God “left the record open.”
He has revealed His identity – and His love
for us – through His Word.
He desires that we “seek Him, … reach out
for Him and find Him, though he is not far from each
one of us” (Acts 17:27).
He longs to be reunited with us, but He is
waiting for us to come to Him.
He gave His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the
cross for our sins so that we can be reunited with Him
(Romans 5:10) as one of His redeemed children.
God,
the Heavenly Father, has revealed the path to reunion
in His Record: believe
in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from sin in repentance
(Acts 17:30-31), confess
Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and be baptized
(immersed) in His name for the forgiveness of sins
(Acts 2:38). Then
we can live with Him eternally if we will follow Him
faithfully (1 John 1:7; Revelation 2:10).
A
joyful reunion with the Heavenly Father awaits YOU!
You won’t have to look very far.
Return to Him on His terms and He will run to
meet you!
David
A. Sargent,
Minister
Church
of Christ at Creekwood
1901
Schillinger Rd. S.
Mobile, Alabama 36695
* Information gleaned
from “Man's journey to find birth mom ends — at work.” By Pat
Shellenbarger of Newhouse News
Service in The Seattle Times -- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004081699_found19.html
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