Watching the Children Grow

Many of you have heard us talk about the little boys who visit our church without their parents.  What a joy is has been to see them develop over the past few years!  Besides praying for them, hugging them, and teaching them about Jesus, one of the more practical things we have tried to teach them is how to sit still and quiet in church.  With that huge task in mind, I bought them notebooks and pens and now every Sunday, they get out their notebooks and draw, usually quietly.  Spongebob has his portrait on several pages and Patrick is also well represented.  As one would expect at this age, the boys are starting to write letters and even copy phrases they see around them.  Today as we were singing one little guy brought me his notebook and asked me what it said.  "TU AMOR POR MI".  "Your love for me", refering to God´s love.  I was overcome with joy to be able to tell this little fellow how much God loves us.  I prayed that the message of the song and his little note-taking would sink into his heart, and the hearts of the other 2 children there without their parents, coming from homes where God´s love isn´t a prominent message.  Well, I found myself so overcome, that then, I wasn´t quite able to sing the song myself!  In a flash I was going over the process in my life that led to that tiny interaction between me and little sweetboy.  A calling to missions, God's leading to Spain, so many financial supporters who have made it possible over the years, language school (thanks for praying me through that one!), a dozen sh´s, a hundred fingers to the lips, and countless hugs later, we arrive at this special moment.  "What does this say?"  That He loves us so much.   It's more than a phrase to copy from the powerpoint.  It´s the phrase that helps us love little ones with dirty fingers, that motivates us to get out of bed in the morning, that helps us love those who mistreat us, and makes us want to do it all over again and again.   TU AMOR POR MI.  His love for me.  immense!