The little faces staring back at me. I close my eyes and picture my child in that place. The place of no home, no comfort, no one to call mama or daddy, no one to hold them when they have a fever, cut a tooth or have a bad dream. No one to listen to their first words, clap for them when they walk, or hear them when they talk.
When I let myself, I look at their faces, into their little eyes. From across the world, through a screen or the ones right in my own community, the little ones, the left behind, the suffering. The ones who don’t belong to anyone. No one to call home or sister or brother No grandparents to spoil them. No one.
Where do they go when they scrape their knees? Who will teach them to climb trees? To be brave? To try new things? Who will teach them to love?
When will the cycle break? Will they become adults who do the same? WIthout love or hope or answers? Will they even have a future…without you?
You. Us. Me. Them.
We are all the same, all longing, all alone. Until the One comes to save us. Our Savior on His throne, tender love, reaches down. Gives the orphan child a crown, a name, Beloved. My child. You are mine.
And He will use our meager gifts, our tender yet flawed attempts at love, our surrender, to reach the little one.
What if?
I reach the end of my life and have nothing to give?
What if?
My legacy is through lives lived, lives loved, life given?
What if?
One life is changed. One story is heard. One soul knows Jesus. One orphan is given a home?
What the world views as crazy and hard and too much…
We see as beautiful, sacrificial love. A gift. A choice. A blessing.
What if love isn’t a vacation on the beach or new and more of anything? What if love is less than? What if love is what the world views as poor, but the orphan child, the mediocre life, the regular mom and hard-working dad understand as everything?
