Today I had something happen to me that broke my heart. Usually I don’t share things that happen at work because of confidentiality reasons, but since I am not giving any information that would lead anyone to know who I am talking about, I’m going to share what happened today.
A couple ladies came in for assistance today and we sent them home with food. As I was bringing out diapers for their beautiful 13-month old little boy, I stopped and talked to them for a minute. I don’t know how this happened, but the conversation ended with them begging me to take the baby. They were just caring for him, as the father is in jail and the mom abandoned this little one. Their words to me that completely shattered my heart were these: “Take him, please. He hasn’t been in the family long enough for us to miss him.”
I have been fighting tears all day. What will this little boy grow up to be like? Will he be loved? He will basically be growing up an orphan, and practically unwanted by the family that is feeding and caring for him. Everything within me wanted to take him today, but I knew that wasn’t wise. I am not at the place in my life where I could have a baby. As I looked into his big beautiful eyes, I wanted to hold him close and tell him, “Do you know how much God loves you? Precious one, I would DIE FOR YOU so you could know.”
Then it hit me. This is the kind of love that Jesus has for us. He saw the helpless state we were in. He died so that we could know how much God loves us. There are no orphans of God.
How I long to live my life showing that! Can you wrap your mind around the fact that God looks into the eyes of every single human on earth and his heart breaks. He says to us, “Do you know how much I love you? I DIED FOR YOU so that you could know!” He sees the tears of His children, longing for the arms of their Daddy, and He longs to embrace us.
How would our lives look different if we lived like this? How would our words, thoughts, and actions change if we looked into the eyes of those around us the way God looks into them? What if we captured God’s love so strongly that we could say to every hurting soul that walks in and out of our lives, “Do you know how much God loves you? Precious one, I would DIE FOR YOU so you could know!” It kills me to know that there are thousands of children without someone to love them today, orphaned by their earthly families for various reasons. However, what a joy and a calling it is that God does not leave us as orphans, but chooses to be our Father and love us so much that He would rather die than let another moment go by that we didn’t know how very much He longs to be our everything. What a thought that is! And He asks of us to love as we have been loved. Wow. What a big love that is. What does that mean to you?
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