Earlier this week we were finishing sizing the kids in the
different homes for clothes in preparation to start labeling and repairing
donations. First we went to the Victory House—a huge home with dozens of kids.
It was chaotic. It was absolutely wonderful. Next, we went to the schoolgirls’
home—an apartment complex that housed the majority of the school-going kids.
Walking in, the atmosphere was immediately different from the other house we
had visited. It was quieter, the children who lived there mostly had physical
disabilities rather than cognitive ones. It felt so much like Home.
A girl whose name I don’t know walked through a doorway, and
without sight she sought a hand or a chair, something to stabilize her. She was
Beautiful. She found Hannah, a girl on our team. Their hands met and Hannah’s
sweet nature surfaced so quickly. She began singing songs, letting the little
girl sit on her lap, holding her hands. The rest of us got comfortable with the
few other kids who weren’t in school, all around Hannah,
listening to her sing. The second or third song she sang was Jesus Loves me.
I haven’t heard this song in a very long time, but when I
did the words struck me. The little girl sang along, her voice
timid, but her smile so strong and so sweet.
Jesus love me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. Little
ones to Him below, they are weak but He is strong.
Have you ever heard something so Beautiful you had to close
your eyes to bear it? Something so True, in the tension somewhere between
heartache and joy that you can’t decide whether to let your heart sob or dance?
It was one of those moments.
Yes. We are so weak. But, Yes, He is so strong.
This summer, this place, this team has God’s fingerprints
all over it. His hand, constantly reminding us that He is strong. Strong enough
to touch our hearts when we don’t really want to be touched. Strong enough to
hold us up, or at least teach us to land on our knees (in praise, in grief, in Him) when we fall. This summer
has been (and I am confident that it will continue to be) so much of God
showing His strength and His Goodness.
And forever reminding us (through little girls who can’t see
and friends near and far who see more clearly than us) that we are weak but He
is strong.
