Orphanage Part II

If I'm honest, it's been REALLY hard to focus on what I'm doing here. It's been hard to focus on the Lord throughout the day. It's been hard to focus on anything but ME and my problems and the details of the next year or so of my life. I've tried to spend time with Him, sometimes considerable amounts of time, and sometimes it's been good, but it usually takes ALL of my energy and focus just to remove myself from the worries and distractions that have been burdening me.

So it was REALLY good to spend time with those kids and finally focus on something or someone other than ME.

I could tell that those kids are loved so much by the people that work there, and it was almost impossible to look somewhere and NOT see a child laughing, or smiling, or playing.

I went over to one kid who had a plethora of medical ailments and disabilities and asked his nanny if I could take him out of the stroller he was sitting in by himself and hold him. He immediately clung to me and laid his head on my shoulder as we walked around outside. He would then start to point to places he wanted me to take him since he couldn't work, and we almost always ended up by a slide.

Just going down a 5-foot slide while I held his arms made this kid SO unbelievably happy. I tried to remember the last time I probably looked as happy and full of joy as he did as I helped him go down the slide over and over again.

In that environment, it was impossible to focus on myself or let myself be burdened by the worries (sin) that had been consuming my life.



As I tried to process things throughout the day, I couldn't help but think about what an incredible representation of the Gospel and our relationship with the Father this orphanage is.

Every single one of these kids was at one point abandoned and as good as dead. No one to care for them and no hope for a future.

But someone came for them, they were rescued and not just cured of their physical ailment which once threatened to end their lives, but they're also adopted into families, many of which are from America or in places where they'll have far more opportunities and a chance for a better life than if they'd even been just a "normal" kid.

This blows my mind. Certainly, no one would ever wish what happened to these kids on anyone. Being left or given up by their parents because of their disabilities that made them "unworthy of love," countless surgeries, etc.

But what once threatened their lives, somehow, ironically, will now change their lives for the better, forever. They won't just return to "normalcy," but some family who will love them very well, provide for their every need, and give them a very promising future will come for them and adopt them into their own family, as their own son or daughter.

We are SO unworthy of God's love and grace, yet He came for us, rescued us, and gave to us the righteousness that was His alone.

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will - to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." -Ephesians 1:4-6

-CK