“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” James 1:16-18
There was a video driven Bible study from the Lutheran Hour several decades ago that opened with a Lutheran pastor standing in a cemetery with only a handful of mourners around him. They we waiting. Someone was late…again. Then the camera panned out over a winding road where there came a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer.
There is this from Job 1:21 that adds clarity to the story of the hearse. “I came naked from my mother's womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!” We are born with nothing, we live and we die with nothing to take with us. Forget the trailer, you can’t take it with you.
Everything we have in between birth and death is provided for us by our Heavenly Father. There are times, that we affluent Americans struggle with that truth. Too often we feel that we provided it all by ourselves.
You, me and these Haitian children all arrived in a tiny, naked body as we drew our initial breath. And what do we have when we depart? A naked body plus a lot of wrinkles, scars and scabs. We take nothing because we brought nothing! Accept it. You don't even own your children. They're God's children, on loan for you to take care of, rear, nurture, love, discipline, encourage, affirm, and then release.
These Haitian children are God’s children too. He’s given you an opportunity to feed them while they are at school learning that their Savior, Jesus, loves them. We have a chance to help change their lives and in turn the lives of others in Haiti. The stuff in the U-Hall trailer; sell it and help feed these kids.
Heavenly Father, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, 8not knowing where we go but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
May God be with you,
Jay