Sometimes you are met with something that stops you in your tracks and lays your soul out. Not a sucker punch, but more of a giant gasp whose exhale is so great that your very being has to catch its breath again.
That sometime was today for me.
Today’s stack of mail wasn’t the usual nondescript pile of bills. There, clipped together, was a stack of notebook paper.
The top one started, “Dear Chad, you don’t know me but I have been praying for you. My name is Zac...”. For confidentiality reasons I won’t write further what the letter said. Long story short, these were letters written by fourth graders in Indonesia. All of them encouraging. Each of them full of love and hope.
I have never felt so humbled, loved and wrecked.
I couldn’t believe that this story of a man’s incredible love could reach halfway around the world – and into the hearts of children. It’s amazing to me for an adult here in the U.S. to hear this story, stop and empathize. Sill more amazing for an adult to respond in a country halfway around the world. But to have a child hear it in Indonesia and then say, “Dear Mr. Arnold Chad, I’m sorry you lose your brother, but always we pray for you, every day. Your brother Mr. Ryan is living happily in heaven...God holds you and He has a purpose for you”....Well, that’s something else altogether.
You can probably imagine how I felt reading these words from tender, innocent hearts.
I got to thinking...this sort of reminds me of Christ’s disciples. They came into it with hopes and dreams. They followed Jesus and just wanted to be with Him wherever He went. They had no idea of the hardship that was lurking up around the corner – the cost that came with their companionship. In the end, of the twelve only John was spared his life – albeit in exile. Beheaded, speared, crucified upside-down. They couldn’t have imagined that being their end. But it was.
It was their end, but not the end. Not despite their pain but through it, the message lived beyond them, reaching into the hearts of a class of fourth graders in Indonesia.
“Someone once said that our life on earth is a time of waiting between the dreaming and coming true. Into that great expansive meantime, which makes up our lives, the Savior comes. He comes to the dry and thirsty land of the human heart in its wild and desperate struggle for survival. He comes to the wilderness of our lives, and a furrow at a time he reclaims the land, restoring something of the Paradise that has been lost. He comes to the weary heart to give it rest. To the lonely heart to give it friendships. To the wounded heart to give it healing. To the sad heart to give it joy. And if not joy, at least the companionship of someone who has known what it’s like to be sad, wounded, lonely and weary.” – Ken Gire
Today, He came by way of Indonesia. Thank you class. You know who you are.