Oh, How He Loves Us

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If you read blogs much at all then no doubt you’ve heard Debra Parker’s plight in trying to get her newly-adopted son Ronel out of Haiti and into her arms.  I’ve wept as she has shared how her husband, Ernest, has slept on the floor of the Embassy in Haiti interceding on behalf of this child who is already theirs in heart. This is a woman I do not know other than through the world of web and yet this family’s anguish and frustration has completely hijacked my thoughts and prayers since I heard of it a few days ago. 

Can you imagine?  Your child is in a country of collapsed and crumbling buildings.   Inadequate food.  Unimaginable stench.  Surrounded by death and dying.  Held captive by bureaucracy.  Hopelessly aware you’ve done all you can do to get him out.  A signature – a seemingly simple transaction – is all that stands between this boy and new life.  And you – his rescuer –  wait and hope for the decision to be handed down that will mean his freedom.

I told Luke about Ronel this morning before church and sobbed like a baby.  He may have cried too.  In a world that shuts its ears to the horrors happening around us, these stories and images are the things that awaken a frenzy to do something to relieve the suffering of those who are living in conditions we deem unlivable.   It was while I was pondering these things that something occurred to me.

We are all orphans. 

Orphans living in a world that is collapsed and crumbling.  Starving for spiritual food.  Surrounded by death and dying.  Held captive by bureaocracy.  And all that is between us is a transaction –  a simple decision – between us and eternal life.  The same angst we feel and then fades when we come face-to-face with tradgedy and injustice is the eternal, urgent heartbeat of a God who is on a mission to rescue each and every suffering one.  He’s aware He’s given His best to get us out but this time, the decision for freedom is ours.    

How great is the love the Father has poured out on us that we should be called the children of God.

Please join me in praying not only for Ronel to be united with his family, but also for the many other children who are without homes and food and parents tonight.  Also, please pray for my brother-in-law, TJ, who has traveled to Depinos (changed from Port Au Prince) to minister there.

UPDATE from my sis-in-law, Laura Beth: 

“They are going to The Haiti Gospel Mission in Despinos (as far as we know). The plans changed again the morning of the trip. Just spoke with him and they were about to cross the border into Haiti. Said the poverty was unbelievable.”