A lil' Perspective

About 25 minutes outside of Itu  there is a place called 'the Christian Home' (Lar Cristao).  It is an orphanage and home to about 40 kids.  We have been to this orphanage many times for various reasons (from attending a weekend retreat on their grounds to taking our youth group there to play soccer with the kids).  I have become close to a few of the kids living at 'The Lar', and very close to one of them.  He is a fifteen year old boy named Eliazar and we met during a weekend encampment hosted by the orphanage.  Eliazar had recently become a Christian and he asked if I would start a Bible study with him.  It was either the day we met, or the following that he asked me this.  His eagerness, driven both by a desire to learn more about his new faith and by the natural loneliness that life without one's family brings, was more than impressive.  We now meet once a week and are studying our way through Matthew.

Starting out our study we had a discussion about the time in Jesus' infancy when his parents had to hide themselves away for fear of King Herod finding Jesus and having him killed.  This led to a discussion regarding the suffering that comes to all in life, even the blameless baby Jesus.  

I asked Eliazar if he had ever had to run for his life, and he said that he had.  I asked him, were you running from a family member... or someone you knew?  He replied, "No, Drugs."

After that discussion I got to thinking, a boy losses his parents, gets in to drugs in a way that puts his life in danger, and then turns around to pursue Christ in his life, anxiously seeking someone to disciple him in his new faith... What does that??!  This was one of those 'hopeless' boys that you see on the street breathing glue out of a bag and asking for money from cars stopped in traffic.  This boy met and was loved by Jesus - and that changed everything.  That can sound so cliche, but the power of the love of Christ to give hope to the hopeless is undeniable.  I can't explain it, I couldn't even imagine it.

Eliazar helped me regain my perspective.  Jesus does make the difference.  If we are really about His life altering Spirit, then we have got to believe in the Hope for the hopeless.