A devotional by Crysti Landis

What decision are you making today that will ripple down to impact people you may never meet? And if we knew the weight of our daily decisions, would we live more intentionally, with greater insight into the long game of life?

During the Contagious Christian series, I found myself reflecting on how decisions made by people far removed from me have forever altered the course of my life.

Several weeks ago, some in our church attended the Global Leadership Summit at LCBC, Ephrata. For whatever reason, I began reflecting on how our family’s adoption journey was influenced by many people I’ve never met. Feeling prompted by God to share, I asked Pastor Steve during a conference break if any other testimonies were scheduled to align with the upcoming messages. But I wasn’t bold enough to directly ask if I could or should share. All the testimony slots were filled, so I let the matter drop. But God didn’t.

That Sunday at church, the message was entitled “Contagious Testimony,” and it concluded with a video that gave me goosebumps. It was verbatim what I wanted to share! I’d seen the video before, and the gist was how your decision to share Christ with others can have a ripple effect you could never imagine. At that moment, I knew I needed to ask directly to share. It was too obvious that God was prompting me, so here goes:

Even as a tween, I knew I wanted to adopt someday. I had read a truly horrific book about one of the worst cases of child abuse in U.S. history, and how the abuse continued into foster care. It broke my heart, and I knew I wanted to be the complete opposite of that. I wanted to grow up to love and protect a child who might otherwise end up in a similar situation.

In high school, I met a dear friend, Marshall. A couple of years into our friendship, he shared a fleeting detail of his life. He didn’t dwell on it, but he mentioned that he always went to Arizona for Thanksgiving to spend time with his former foster family. Though he currently lived with his biological mom, his foster family had made such a positive impact on his life that he always returned to reconnect and share this holiday meal. Once again, I was struck by the lasting value of a loving foster/adoptive family.

Fast forward to post-college life, when I was dating a boy, Jerome, from Lancaster County. Before we got engaged, I told him that one of my non-negotiables for life was fostering or adopting. If we were going to move forward together, he had to be on board! He agreed, and we are now married with a family blended through fostering, adoption, and biological birth.

This decision not only impacted our lives and that of our new family, but it also opened an opportunity to share the Good News with one of my children’s biological parents.

Now, as I look at my children and think of the goodness of God in blessing us with each of them—some of whom we could not have created with our own DNA—I am so grateful. I’m grateful for Dave Pelzer, whom I never met, but whose autobiography about a horrific childhood deeply impacted me. I’m grateful for Marshall’s foster family, whose names I never knew, but who loved a young boy whose passing comment solidified my heart for adoption. And I’m grateful for God, the Master Weaver, who intertwined these threads into my life and now into the lives of my children and their futures, including all they will do and all those they will impact.

And it makes me wonder: Did Marshall’s foster parents have any idea that their act of loving service would ultimately lead to two more children being rescued from the foster system? I imagine not. And I also wonder, what choices am I making today that will ripple down and impact people I’ve never met? And will my choices influence them for good?

I realize my foster/adoption testimony isn’t the same as that video from the church service—it’s not strictly about people being brought into the family of Christ. But the concept is the same. And the ongoing impact of choices made by people I never knew has brought two young children into our family and into the family of God, and quite possibly one of the biological parents into the faith as well. I won’t know in this lifetime, and that’s a story for another day.

I leave you with this: live every day with the mindfulness that your choices matter. Choose to follow Christ and be bold in Him. You never know how He will choose to use you, weaving your life thread into the tapestry of someone else’s life as He creates His masterpiece.

“Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act.” —Psalm 37:5