Monday, July 16, 2012

Beautiful Things.

Three weeks ago, Adam and I sat around the living room at Love in Action, a children's home in Bangalore, India. We sipped chai tea and teared up as Enoch told us the background stories of the children who live at this home. Many came from broken families. Some lost their parents after their conversion to Christianity. Others were sent to Love in Action from impoverished villages that lacked any educational opportunities. Three siblings arrived after fleeing from an extremely violent home that led to their mother's suicide.

As we listened, it was hard not to think, "God, where are You?"

We were soon interrupted with giggles and shouts as the children arrived home from school. We met them outside and played all sorts of games in their dusty front yard.  They laughed as we bumbled our way through their fancy version of Duck, Duck, Goose. They let Sara win at Steal the Bacon. They repeatedly requested, "Uncle Adam! Teach us one more game!"

That night at devotions, we sat around that same living room and these thirteen beautiful children sang with sweet, loud, confident voices that You Make Beautiful Things Out of Dust.

And in that moment, it was impossible not to think, "God, you are here."

And it's funny because we thought that we were taking a 22-hour plane trip to see our friends in India and teach them the Big God story when instead, we went all that way to learn it a little better ourselves.