In the end … all I have to give is LOVE
Imagine…
Driving down a washed out road in a horse carriage being pulled by a motorcycle. Every bump in the road is taken with caution, yet you’re still jostled out of your seat. You look to the left and the right, the houses are flooded with no ground to be seen. After several minutes of riding, you arrive in front of a dirt yard, a wooden house with a rusted tin roof, and a cement fence surrounding the perimeter. Yet your eyes lose focus of the structures and move to the children extending their arms through the worn-out blue gate – longing for someone touch them. The gate opens slowly and within seconds, five children are hugging on you…
What a wonderful feeling! After all the anticipation, we arrived at an orphanage where poor and abandon children are cared for. These children are hungry for love, like I have never seen before. They long for someone to hold them; someone to care for them.
I began pondering on the question: “What makes these children so hungry for love?” I came up with some obvious answers…They are children. They want to feel special. They want to feel needed. They don’t have anyone around to hold them, so they find delight in the thought of someone hugging them, even touching them. While these answers hold true, I knew there had to be a little more…
After dinner one night, our pastor began sharing his story. He is a man who lived through the times of communism, became a Christian at a refugee camp, immigrated to the States, and is now serving God in his home country of Cambodia. During the times of communism, you were ordered to obey the person ruling over you. If you failed to follow the rules or didn’t fit the norms, you were sent away – never to be seen by family and friends again. When you walk down the street, you see the physical love of friendships, mainly between guys and guys – girls and girls. This love stems from the times when people didn’t know if their friends were returning – you gave a hug like it was the last.
Realizing this factor brought upon by the recent history of the country, I began to dig a little deeper into the question … “What makes these children so hungry for love?” It’s love they hunger for and love they give… They have been shown to love like the person may never come back … as though it might be their last time to meet…
What if I showed my love like it was the last? If I love with all that I am and all that God gives and allow Christ to be my well-spring, my love will never run dry… I am still learning to show my love to others, as if it is the last time we will meet. I continue to grow more conscious of a stroll down the street – smiling because our words are just sounds, praying because God is ALL, and extending my hand to help where needed.
Because in the end…all I have to give is LOVE…
