Conduit

Days like yesterday, when I get to be with my 10 boys from sun up to sun down, have a way of surprising me at times. I'm not sure why I'm not "used to it" by now or why I sometimes have to metaphorically step back to gain a better perspective. But God is doing something through me. And what He is doing through me is doing something in me. I've never really been a kid person. If someone asked me to do some kids ministry to help them out, I'd probably giggle and say, "Me!? Are you serious? No, I'm not good with kids. Ask someone else." But when it comes to the least of these, I don't think whatever box we have chosen to put ourselves in seems to matter much to God. Yesterday I was reminded of exactly why I live here.

Twice a week, I take over all the caregiving for a dorm of 10 boys so that those caregivers can have a true day off to rest. It's a lot of work, but at the end of the day, the joy these kids give me far outweighs my physical exhaustion. These precious children have a way of blessing me in and amongst all the craziness.

Their smiles, giggles, behavioral outbursts, when one tells me that he loves me as much as from here to the sky, their psychological conditions that they carry as a result of abuse or their abandonment, their tiny little hands, the 7 year old who is learning to read, my pre-schoolers who can almost write their names, the way they misbehave if I'm not paying enough attention to them, my 4 year old who is weirdly obsessed with ears all of a sudden, when all 10 of them try to hide from me all at once in the church and another 4 year old tries to tell on them saying, "they were up there hiding in that place where we worship God," because he doesn't know that it's called a church, their cranky fits at dinner.....

I could go on and on.

But God has something going on here. I don't need to understand it.

I feel like some kind of conduit . God is passionately loving these precious children and he's doing it through me. It's a feeling that can probably only be described by a parent with their toddler- The way they love them.

I'm so thankful that I serve a God who is passionate about the least of these. The world might try to ignore them or classify them as a charity but not God. He knows them each by name. He has promised to never leave them or forsake them and to be their father.

He made them.

He made them beautiful.