Children of God

Matthew 25:44-45 "They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'"

I live across the street from an emergency child care home. They bring the kids here immediately after removal from their families. These young children usually come in with nothing but sometimes they are lucky enough to come in with few trash bags with their sacred belongings in them. This morning as I was letting my dog out in the rain there was a young boy moving in. My head is flooded with thoughts of what his Thanksgiving weekend must have entailed to have to move into this home on a rainy Monday morning.

So many of us were in the hustle and bustle of cooking, shopping and being with family, here this little boy must have had a horrible weekend followed by a horrible Monday morning. His whole little world is turned upside down today. He is about the age of my middle son, and I can't imagine what would be going through his head. His parents minds, his grandparents or any others that love him. He's not at school this morning, I wonder what his teachers think, if he has any friends wondering where he is this morning.

Child abuse is a dreadful thing. We live in a county with a lot of child abuse. There is a lot of poverty here hidden among the beautiful mountain homes. There are a lot of little hollers and coves filled with people who have lived in these mountains for generations. The have very little and with the holidays approaching I wonder if their stress of money makes them take their frustration out on their children.

Matthew 18:3 "And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

How often we forget that we too are children. Children of God. How often we come to him on a rainy Monday morning with nothing more than a few trash bags of our sacred belongs. Our hurts, our entitlements, our rejection and bitterness running down our face. He wraps us in his arms and says finally you have come. I have waited for you. I have longed to hold you and today is the day that you have laid down all of your strength and have come to rest in my arms.

Just like that little boy across the street. Lord knows what he endured this weekend. But today, he is safe. Today he is in a home that loves children. He is in a place where he can rest and doesn't have to wonder if he will survive. Oh to be sure he is hurting and broken hearted. However, he will eat today, no one will hit him today. Sometimes we just have to keep things in perspective and know that where we are is a lot better than where we came from. It is my duty to pray for those children as then enter that house. I feel that is why God has placed me here in this neighborhood. I don't have to talk to them, I don't have to do anything more than to lend them my faith and to pray for them. It is my prayer that this little boy is safe, that his family can be reconciled and that he can have a future that is full of hope and love. That he doesn't get eaten up with resentment and bitterness but learns to forgive and to love like he was today.

Lord, thank you for your deliverance, thank you for picking us up right where we are and sitting our feet upon You, our Rock and our Salvation. Lord, let us see hurting people around us and let us love them like you would love them. Lord, today I pray for my own children as well. That I remember how precious they are. What a gift you have given to me in them Father. They have taught me to love you and to stay on my knees. Lord, I pray for grace today as I mother these children of ours. That even as I myself am your child that I will reflect that to them. That as I teach them and train them in your ways that it's your voice that they hear and not the voice of a mother that is tired or stressed. Lord, don't let them become my place to bear my burdens. Don't allow them to become my scapegoat. Lord, let me come to your with my frustrations and not take them out on these little babes that you have given me to nurture and to love. Father, I love you, I am hopelessly devoted to you. Thank you for the rain, thank you for the peace and thank you for today. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.