Tears of Pain

I held my kids as they cried tonight. Instead of doing a Bible study, some of the older children gave their testimony. One after another, they broke down in tears as they told their new brothers and sisters their stories of how God rescued them out of the pit of despair. They stories are heart-wrenching. At such a young age they have experienced more abandonment, hunger, neglect, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, and hatred than I could ever imagine. All I could do was hold them and dry their precious tears.

Two girls also found out that their grandmother had just passed away. Everyone was so emotional as they cried not only out of the hurt of their own situations but for their brothers and sisters who have gone through so much pain. I can't put into words how much these kids and their stories have effected me. Their stories are so real and their wounds are still so fresh. Even the little ones, what we'd still consider babies, have experienced more pain in their few years on earth than your average grown adult has faced. It is sickening what some of their own family members have done to them.

But amidst all the pain and hurt there is something much greater that these children cling to. They have the hope of Jesus Christ and his offer of a new life in Him. They have been rescued not just physically from the hands of abuse, but rescued spiritually from a world of Hinduism and Islam into the loving arms of our Lord Jesus Christ. These children cling to that closer than anything. Their faith is not just something they profess, but something that has quite literally saved their lives. Somehow, by the grace of God, they found hope and they can feel it. They have such bright futures now. My children are safe in the arms of the one who saves!

"Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me." --Psalm 27:10