Redemption

On April 8, 2014, I received a most amazing call, it was a call that deepened my understanding and awe of God’s redemption, of God’s faithfulness and God’s goodness.

On April 7,1969, my first wife, Lynn, (Lynn went home to Jesus in 2007) gave birth to our son who was conceived out of wedlock. We were just teenagers, I was ready to go off to college and Lynn about to enter her senior year in high school, when we learned that Lynn was pregnant.

Photo via Pixabay

When she began to show,  she went to live with her aunt in Pittsfield, MA. After she gave birth, the child, who we named David, was given up for adoption, the records were sealed and we never knew where he was.  Lynn and I were married in 1972 and we had nine other children. Through the years we always thought of David and after becoming believers in1979, we faithfully prayed for him, asking God to make him a man after God’s heart.
In a journal that I kept after Lynn died, I wrote in a first person style to Lynn, “I wonder what God has in mind for??"  I wrote '??' because we never told our other children that they had another brother.
                                                                        

So, on April 7, 2014, on David’s 45th birthday, I prayed for him, as I always did, and did not have a clue of what was about to happen. The next day I received a call from a cousin , who is the manager of a family business and said that " there is someone here who says that you are his father", I replied "really?,  put him on". A man spoke and said hello, my name is Jeff Purner and I have a birth certificate that says Lynn Smith was my mother. I replied, yes that is correct and went on to say that yesterday was your birthday and as I have done through the years I prayed for you. Jeff then explained that, that morning he got up and was praying (when he said that, I began to cry with tears of gratitude to the Lord because I knew God answered my prayer that David would be a man after God) and the Lord spoke to him to get his birth certificate from his desk where it had sat for one year.

The back story is that in 2013, Jeff had received a letter from the state of MA informing him that he could get a copy of his birth certificate (a law had changed to allow that). He received it and tried to locate his mom but with no success. So it sat on his desk for 1 year until that morning of April 8, 2014 when he had the prompting to re-try locating his birth mother. He sat down with his computer and within 15 minutes he found his mother’s obituary, saw that her married name was Deeb and saw that he potentially had 9 siblings. At that point he did not know if Alfred Deeb (me) was his dad.  Jeff’s adopted dad (his adopted mom and dad had both passed away) had told him he was half Lebanese (I am 100% Lebanese) and with that information  researched the name and found it was a Lebanese name. Jeff then asked himself, is it possible that my birth mom and dad actually married?


 After that, Jeff researched further and found a picture that had been recently posted on Facebook of my seven other sons and as he gazed at the picture he knew that he found his family. Full of excitement at his discovery, he drove from his home in Glens Falls to my home in Wynantskill. He knocked but nobody was home. Jeff then pondered his options and went online where  he discovered that there was a family business nearby and drove there. It was at that point when a cousin put him in touch with me. We talked, cried and made plans to meet the next day.  Meanwhile, I had to call my nine other children to inform them that they had another brother. Each of them were shocked but were excited to meet him. Well, the next day we met and talked and talked and talked…. I learned that Jeff had grown up in Latham and was married with three children. Overnight, I went from having six grandchildren to nine grandchildren. That Sunday,  the family gathered for dinner, it was quite a circle. The following Sunday, we had the joy of witnessing Jeff, Nicole, Adair, Hunter and Lily Purner be baptized at their church in Glens Falls.

As I have pondered about our story, I have realized that God delights in writing chapters that we did not anticipate or felt would ever be written. God is about redemption and restoration. In my family I have seen other instances of redemption: my father was in med school and dropped out, I had wanted to go to med school but lost my focus and now one of my sons is about to graduate from medical school. What was lost in two generations has been restored. There is yet another seemingly lost blessing that God wanted to bring in my father’s generation that I am believing will be restored in my generation. But that is a chapter that has not been written yet and hope to tell in the near future.

My thoughts :

I find it amazing that Jeff had lived his whole life so close to his natural father without knowing it. It's a blessing that this family can visit each other as much as they like. God is in the business of restoration, either restoring all we have lost in time past or restoring us to himself. If you have wandered away from God, I encourage to trace your way back to Him and He will welcome you with hands wide open. God loves you and wants to shower you with His love. No matter how far you have gone, God is near you, only take a step of faith.

Have a great week!

P.S: If I know your name, you might find me knocking at your door on Facebook, hope you will open that door for me to connect with you and your friends. Thanks