“My heart is broken within me; all my bones
tremble.” The prophet Jeremiah
Today I learned that a child I knew died. He
drowned in a dirty creek while trying to save his younger sister. The torrent
of tributes attesting that he was a “great kid” will flow but the reality is that
when I first met him, “great” is not the first adjective I would have chosen to
describe him.
He was ornery and mischievous. The type of
kid that made you worry about the metrics of your after-school program’s
“success” rate.
As a pastor I sat in countless meetings with church
members, school principals, and other colleagues hungry to provide care,
support- anything they could offer, to partner with this child and his family.
He came to my church. He attended the Summer Freedom School and evening
mentoring program sponsored by my congregation. We launched an entire after
school enrichment program with him and his siblings in mind.
Some days he would come to our programs and
run up to one of my friends and give her a great big hug- a sign and seal of
the abounding love he had to offer. Other times he would refuse to do homework,
fight with another kid, or receive notice that if his actions continued, he
would not be allowed to come back next week.
We thought that we never gave up on him but
the truth is that he never gave up on us.
I think we’re often tempted to believe that
the miracle was that we would break away from our busy week and invest time and
talent into the life of a child not of our own blood. This is incorrect. The
real miracle was that a child would trust a group of outsiders who knew little
of his experience and let them into his world, forgiving them for never fully
understanding where he was coming from or what he had to deal with on a daily
basis. This is grace in its most raw form.
When I moved away from this community two
years ago, I thought that he and his brothers and sisters would be okay because a
few dedicated couples and two of my former colleagues in particular were deeply
invested in sharing life with him and his family. What I didn’t realize then was
that the real reason he and his siblings would be okay was that they had each
other and a love that wouldn’t think twice before putting their own lives in
harm's way if the situation called for it.
This did not make him a “great” kid. It made him a
Christ-like one.
Godspeed, Randez.
Godspeed, Randez.
Lord, in your mercy.
