One of the my most distressing disappointments of this pandemic (no, not
Hawaii) will impact 10,000 children and 15,000 adults in 43 states and 6 countries. Anyone who knows me knows I choose twenty
years ago to align myself with Royal Family Kids (rfk.org). I've spent the past eighteen summers working with camps
in Oklahoma, Colorado and Missouri. We
believe that this week of camp is essential to the well-being of
the children we serve. Those children
who have been placed in State Custody due to dysfunctional families and abuse. Our kids have been ripped from their families, often siblings are separated; they live in a
constant state of uncertainty. It has been devastating to those of us who work with these children to have to cancel this summer's camps. One mainstay at camp is reminding these children that they are not
forgotten, God knows their name and He
has a purpose for their lives. It takes
them a while to even entertain that thought.
It wouldn’t be surprising if many of us are not feeling forgotten in
this day of trouble. As this pandemic
drags on and even with some relaxing of the restrictions, we are still a long way from the world we
knew before. Some say we will never see
that world again. Not a very encouraging
thought.
Lamentations 3:21-23 is my
favorite scripture and today, it seems
all the more true. “Yet I still dare to
hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends, His
mercies never cease. Great is His
faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh
each morning.”
I confess that I have entertained hopelessness in these long days. I’ve wondered where God is in all of this and
I’ve worried that this is our new normal.
But, most days, I ‘dare to
hope’. As long as there is breath in our
bodies, God has a purpose for us. His timetable is not ours. Isaiah reminds us that our ways are not His
ways. He holds the completion
dates. He has not forgotten.
If you could join me at camp; you would see exuberant little faces, arms
in the air, jerky movements and finally arms raised to Heaven; singing at the top of their lungs:
He
knows all of our names, He sees us in
this crisis.
Thinkin
about that this morning, and hoping.
No comments:
Post a Comment