Whether at the Orphanage or the School, We're all looking for 1 thing...

Today after school, I visited an orphanage for the first time. It was in the center of the city on a side street, this little orphanage named Sisters of Charity. Besides the name upfront, it had the appearance of a normal house. But inside it was anything but normal. We walked into a room full of 2 year olds playing with the few stuffed animals they had. Past that was a room full of children with physical handicaps who could do little more than lie on their beds without help.  Beyond that a room full of babies with no mothers and fathers (or with mothers and fathers that weren't capable of caring for them). There were probably about 30 kids there, from infant to 4 years. And the sad fact that held them all there together was that they had no one who could take care of them. They had no family to love them. So these caretakers brought them in. And although the caretakers there do an excellent job, there's only so much of them to go around. Which means there's so much extra love that these kids need to receive. 

Today what I set out to do was just give the little love I could. And although most of them didn't speak the same language as I, although a few knew some English, we had so much fun laughing and playing together. Whether we were bouncing tennis balls across the room and chasing them or picking them up and swinging them around and around, we were just full of laughter and smiles. They reminded me so much of the little ones I used to babysit at the church I went to in Saginaw, because in so many ways they were the same. Fun is fun no matter what language you speak or how different you look. And whether they were the little blondies I babysat in Saginaw or the little orphans I played with today, they all were happy if they got one thing from me: my love and attention. 

My roommate Brenna reading to a kid

Apparently we snuck similar pictures of each other

And the thing is it's not just the orphans that need that. That's the same exact thing my students at school need. It just looks different when I give it to them. For my students at school, sometimes the most loving thing I can do is keep them after class and talk to them about why they were struggling to pay attention and how we can fix it. Or give them an assignment that will really challenge them to be responsible and push their mental abilities to the limit so they can see just what awesome things they truly are capable of. Sometimes it does get to be more fun like chaperoning their events and playing fun games with them. (Even when those fun games sometimes make me look silly.) Or like walking down the halls with them and giving them basic friend-making tips (*nudge* "If you want to make a friend, a great way is to give them a compliment like 'I really like your.....uniform shirt.'" #misslenewaysschooloffriendship). Or as I've been working on with my middle schoolers, sometimes love looks like just being there for them because so often they get forgotten and lost in the mix. And whether an orphan or a student at some fancy missionary school, no child deserves the left overs. They all deserve the best that you and I have to offer. 

And the thing is: it's not just the orphans and it's not just my students. All any of us want is the love and undivided attention of another human being. It's what the man begging on the street corner really needs (although it's true he probably needs some other help as well). It's what my roommates need after I come home from a long day. It's what my coworkers need when I sit down with them for lunch. It's what my friends back home, who text me in the middle of the night because they forget the 12 hour time difference, need. It's what the people I run into on the street every day need. It's what the people who you meet on the street every day need. All of us are looking for someone to love us and someone to pay attention to us. So why not be the person who will do that for someone else? Why not fulfill that need in another and trust that God will take care of that need in you? Because the thing is as Christians we have already had this fulfilled in us in the person of Jesus Christ. 

And God assures us of this in His Word, "For I am convinced that neither life or death, nor angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ." (Romans 8:38-39). Nothing in the world could take Jesus's love away from us! Nothing you do, nothing I do. Not the worst day not the best day. Nothing. We are completely loved by Him at all time in all places. Even before we knew Him or acknowledged Him (Romans 5:8). So why do we hold on to our love to dole out at our convenience rather give it freely and extravagantly like God has given it to us? Let us be generous in giving out our love today and let others see Jesus in us as we do so.