Three Mothers. Today I want you to try
on some different shoes.
Imagine. You are a twenty one year old
girl. You live in Guachupita, in a shack with your eighteen year old
sister and your three year old son. Your son has a life threatening
illness that requires 24 hour medical care. Somehow, you scrape up
the money to get him treatment and keep him fed even though you
cannot work because you don’t have anyone to care for your little
boy.
Imagine. You are a sixteen year old
girl who lives in Guachupita. You just had a baby that was two months
premature. She weighs a pound and a half when you bring her home from
the hospital. You do not have the money to take care of her or the
family to help you. So, you run. You abandon your baby. You tell your
neighbors, family, and friends that they should just throw the baby
away, that no one should want her. You laugh when you watch people
try to figure out a way to pay for formula for your newborn child.
Imagine. You are a young woman with
four young children. You live in Guachupita. You have enough to feed
your family, but money is very tight. You hear from your neighbors
about a premature newborn that has no place to go. You take her in.
You hold her tight and love her even though you don’t know where her
formula, clothes, or diapers will come from.
Tika. Marikeli. Bella. Three mothers in
Guachupita. I met all of them tonight. All three of them have
different, yet amazing stories.
Tika is younger than I am. Her son,
Wilme is three years old, and he was born with something wrong in his
digestive system. Wilme has a colostomy bag. Tika has another son
that lives a couple of hours away, but she cannot see him because
Wilme gets sick so much. Tika started believing in God when Wilme was
on his deathbed as an infant, and she hit her knees and prayed for
him to live. Wow.
Marikeli. She did not want her baby
girl. She said that people should be trying to take care of her
instead of the Valerie, her newborn child. It is very clear that
Marikeli has some issues. All of us stood there and observed her from
a distance. Our translator refused to talk to her; he said he does
not have the patience for people like that. As we were leaving, all I
could think about was…â€�If Jesus were here, in this place right
now, what would His love for her look like?�
Bella. That woman has an amazing heart.
It will only be through God that she can come up with enough money to
raise these five children. She is completely selfless to take on the
task of helping a one pound baby try to survive in Guachupita. Her
faith that God will provide is something that will stick with me for
a very long time.
When I thought about loving people
around the world, I thought about the Bellas and Tikas of this world.
I thought of the people doing their best with what they have, but
never seeming to have enough. I did not think about the
Marikelis…the lowest people, the most broken people who might have
done extremely terrible things. God still loves her.
You and I are the same as Marikeli in the eyes of God. So. That makes
me want to figure out how I can love her too. If I deserve grace, she
deserves grace.
Three mothers.
Three stories of grace and mercy. Grace and mercy that looks very
different for each situation. Remember their stories when you don’t
feel like you can endure any longer. Remember their stories when you
feel like God’s forgiveness cannot cover something you have done.
