Shades of Brown

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:26-7

Nancy and Jonah - October 2013

A couple of months ago Jonah was helping me make granola. As his little fingers separated gooey, molasses-covered oatmeal chunks and his head was bowed over his work, I heard his sweet voice ask in the softest of whispers, "Did I grow in your tummy?" 

I wasn't absolutely positive I'd heard him. And he didn't look up after his question. 

"Did you ask if you grew in my tummy?" I asked gently.

"Yes," he whispered, still not looking up.

My eyes filled with tears. I hated to answer the question, but knew I must. Bless his heart, Jonah had attached himself to us so completely from his first days with us as a year-old foster baby that it had taken several years for him to question his biological heritage.

Jonah - 2009

So, using a soft voice almost matching his, I answered the question whose answer was at the same time totally heart-breaking and wonderful. God had used another very real young girl to bring Jonah into the world and ultimately into our family. She couldn't care for him and so, like many of his friends, he was adopted into a family that could care for him.

Since then Jonah has asked other questions. And, not surprisingly, one of them has been about the color of his skin. 

"Why is my skin black?" he asked one day. Hmmm. Jonah had obviously heard someone say he was black. 

Of course we had known the day would come when Jonah would start to question why his skin was the darkest in the family, but we hadn't told Jonah his skin was black because it isn't black. Jonah's skin is brown. And Mark's skin is lighter brown than Jonah's skin, and mine lighter than Mark's. 

And how thankful I am I don't have white skin! As sensitive as my Scandinavian skin is to sunlight, I can only imagine how awful it would be if I were truly white. No, my skin is simply a light shade of brown. And Jonah's skin is no more black than mine is white. 

I don't know what Jonah's future holds and I don't know the questions that will come into his mind regarding his biological heritage. But this I do know—skin color should not be a big issue. While Jonah's skin is not the very same as mine or his other family members, neither is it opposite. We all have brown skin. His is simply another shade of brown.

"Uncle Jonah" with Audrey and Noah

For more information, see the article "Are There Really Many Races?" on Answers in Genesis' website.
See On Making Jonah a Sheppard.

See Jonah's Brush with Death.