"Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous- and how well I know it" Psalms 139:14 (New Living Translation)
Bellybuttons are funny! Everyone owns one and just like fingerprints, no two are alike. Children typically are fascinated with these peculiar holes in their tummy and love to intently study them . Giggles typically come when a baby's bellybutton is gently poked in fun! No one seems to take bellybuttons seriously for they just seem to sit on our middles and do nothing worthwhile. No wonder they make us laugh! They seem so silly! But at one time, when we were created in the wombs of our mothers, they played a lifesaving role.
Our bellybutton (navel) or tummy-button as it's sometimes called is a sign that we once were anatomically attached to our mothers. An umbilical cord, beautifully designed by God, was our dependent lifeline needed to carry all the nourishment from our mother's body to ours while we were developing. When we were born and left the womb to breathe on our own, this precious cord was cut, severed and we became independent little persons.
Adoptee Joy Budensiek, who wrote the book "Reconnected to my Bellybutton" regarding her search and reunion with her birth mother, chose a clever title to name her quest. The reality of the presence of the bellybutton reminds adoptees that they once had a precious connection with their birth mother who they were separated from and likely never knew. Bellybutton's are the first scar that needed healing from the point of the severing. Though this bodily wound heals soon after birth with a scar, adoptees carry an additional emotional wound from the complete separation from their mothers through adoption. This too requires a process of healing. Regardless of whether an adoptee has embraced a positive adoption experience or not the significant loss of the birth mother needs to be grieved. The grieving process can begin anytime an adoptee cognitively awakens to their adoptee status. Then they can begin to comprehend their original loss and in time hopefully give themselves permission to grieve the separation. And as Christians we grieve, but not as those who have no hope. Our hope rests in God, our Maker.
Ah, bellybuttons! Silly to behold, wonderfully unique as fingerprints and bittersweet scars of rememberance. May they ever remind us of the awesome gift of life we've been given by our heavenly Father through the sacrificial love of our first mothers.
God our Creator, Maker of our awesome bodies and even our bellybuttons! We thank and praise you for the beauty of your design. As we navigate the mixed emotions of our adoption journeys, we ask that you would be our tender Shepherd . Hold us as we grieve our losses and embrace our adoption and the life you planned for us for your glory and your honor. In Jesus name we pray, Amen
By Jody Moreen, Copyright 2006. Permission needed to reprint in any form or media.
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