Devotion 412 - hope

How do you explain hope to a child?

How do you explain love?

And how in this hard world do you explain hate?

These words are words that a six-year old holds.  She doesn’t yet know how to harbor.  They are lived and not learned.  They are felt and not festered.

It came unexpectedly.

 

Ava and I alone for a whole evening. 

We crafted, we played and then we decided on one short show. I was not up to finding loose dvds and empty cases squirreled away on a less than organized shelf so we ventured on to youtube.

She saw it.  The little green guy that we have been singing about on the Christmas radio. She had never laid her eyes on the Grinch.  

She was instantly fond of the “Who’s” and their roast beast but when the narrator said, “He hated Christmas, the whole season through,” she had me stop the video until I could explain why.

If you listen close, the narrator seemed to know my plight.  He explains the Grinch’s shoes are too tight, but this did not fit Ava.  She wanted more.

I cozied up and thought where to go with this.  As parents it is our privilege to protect innocence, but it is also our responsibility to respond with gently wrapped honesty.

I saw that picture; you know the one where the Grinch’s heart is painted two sizes too small.  We took a look at that and talked about ours.

What makes our heart grow and not stall? 

It is Jesus.

If we love Him we have the capacity to love much bigger than ourselves. I talked to Ava about loving when it is hard. It is not about presents or lights or cards or candy.

It is about allowing a love to grow bigger than the hate that surrounds us. It is about allowing God room.  Room at the Inn and room when it doesn’t make sense.

It makes no sense to react kindly to the gruff neighbor or the rude store clerk.  It makes no sense that families in the middle east are being blown up and starved out. 

It makes no sense that God forgives selfishness and idolatry and stupidity.  And it makes absolutely no sense that He takes something as simple as faith and makes it fierce.

 I tell Ava that the changes we want to see in this world and in these cold hearts are more than possible because Jesus loves us more than we can possibly fathom.

I have seen love.  I have seen it in the coldest of orphanages as nannies hold babies so they know the touch of a Father. I have seen it in the darkest of hours in mental hospitals where nurses work to make sense out of sorrow and suffering.

It is not God that is lacking it is our introduction to Him.

His Father brought Him to the manger. We take Him from there.

We are the smile.

We are the encouraging word.

We are the five dollars for lunch.

We are the grocery carrier and the snow shoveler.

We are the hanky and the shoulder.

We are not the why or the how.  

We are the because.  Because He loves us, we must love.

We must show the haters and those whose hearts have yet to grow that there are still miracles, that there are still symphonies, that there are still lovers of the soul.

There are still people that will stand up and hold hands and hearts and stand against wrong.

Without Him we are nothing.   It is our time.  While the world talks of euthanizing the pain, let’s be the ones that will estherize it. 

Let’s hear the call.

 In our given corner, we may be the only one, we may be the very one for this very time.  Let’s take what we have and allow the Holy Spirit to pour it out.  Let’s not worry about being seen, or loved or embarrassed or discussed.  Let’s focus on the reflection of Jesus in us.

"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?" 

Esther 4:14