This past month in Jamaica I had the opportunity to get to know children in the surrounding community. One boy would come by the church where we lived and spend time with us almost every day. He’s 14-years-old and we soon became pretty close. He would open up a little more each day to me about all that he was going through.
He told me how he has had a brain tumor since he was 5 and how the neighborhood he lives in is so dangerous that it scares him to go to sleep at night.
On one of our last nights there, we were sitting on a bench and he looked pretty upset. I asked him if he was okay and he responded with “I just don’t know what I’m going to do when you guys are gone.” My first thought was how touching it was to know that we had impacted him so much in such a short time. As I pressed further, he told me that he hated going home because his parents always cussed him out. I asked him to name one thing that he loves about his mom. He instantly responded with “she’s nice.” I then asked him to name something he loves about his dad. He sat there for about a minute thinking, and finally responded with “Nothing. There’s not one thing.”
That hit me hard. This boy couldn’t name a single, small thing he loves about his dad. In that moment, God gave me the chance to remind him that our earthly fathers aren’t perfect. They mess up. They sometimes hurt us, but the good news is our Heavenly Father is perfect. He never messes up. He loves us more than anyone on this earth ever could. How awesome is that to think about? The God that created the heavens and everything on this earth is our father. We are His children.
He looked up at me, smiled, and nodded in agreement. “We do have a pretty good father, don’t we?”
