I do not know this little boy Chase, but I cried when I read his memorial. This business of caring and loving for people...even when the "outcome" is unknown....it's risky business. I have witnessed and shared pieces of this kind of risky life through my job the past 9 years; I entered joyfully into the risk over 3 years ago when I accepted Tim's proposal of marriage; I yelled and whined and "pushed" into the risk over a year ago when sweet Lucy was born of me; I call and email and pray to keep friendships alive and growing. To care is a risk: one that I believe can have more "ups" then "downs" usually... but the heart does not stay "safe". That's a good thing, a miraculous thing really. Whoever wrote the memorial says it so well. Click on the link to read it, but a quote from another link from New Day Foster Home said: "But as he walked into glory he did not walk alone, unloved or unknown". That kills me. It's beautiful, but it must be the opposite of that....that some people DO "walk" alone, unloved or unknown...that kills me. I don't know how to reconcile this into my belief system. I believe that God truly is the Defender of the Orphan, and just looking at this one website, of the miraculous stories of how God provided a way for individual children to have life proves it enough for me. What I struggle with is how can *I* risk more to love and care for people, for orphans, for widowed, homeless, hungry, sad, scared... unloved and unknown? God wants to use MY hands to reach out to them, to be HIS hands and heart and voice and warmth to one of these. Can I "get by" with "just" sending money: hard earned money, and well valued money... that IS a start....
Boy...accepting Tim's sparkly diamond was a lot easier than all this other risky business! Pray with me please, on how we, you and I, can care for and love the "lonely, unloved and unknown". Looking for a summary, I went back to the verse in the memorial above, and found it in a different version, The Message. I kind of like it.
14-19My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19
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