This past weekend, we had our first off day in Thailand. As we’ve recently had long travel days and have been adjusting to our new schedule, we wanted it to be as restful as possible, so we decided to go to a mall in Chiang Rai. My team and I were able to get WiFi (and iced coffee!!!!) at the Starbucks to fill out applications, check emails, and FaceTime parents. We were gone from the early morning until about 4:00. When we got back, we found out we were having a birthday party for all the girls with March birthdays.
As I walked up to the pavilion for the birthday party, five of the middle schoolers I teach daily sprinted full-speed in my direction yelling “HALLE!!!” (Which sounds more like “Harry” when they say it). They gave me the biggest, sweetest embrace I have ever received. You would’ve thought they hadn’t seen me in years, when it had only been hours. It was a welcome I didn’t deserve. And it’s a lot how I imagine God looks at us when we enter heaven. It encompassed the child-like Faith that God so eagerly wants us to have. Children believe in their dreams because they’ve never been given a reason not to, and they live out the truth that the world is theirs. In the same way, God wants us to believe in Him not because we’re told to, but because He’s never given us a reason not to. He wants us to take Him out of the box we’ve placed Him in for too long and start believing that he can and will fix our brokenness. A new song came out by Passion this year, and some of my favorite lyrics in it say “my doubts and fears don’t scare You”. He sees exactly what we’re worried about and shrugs His shoulders. He KNOWS he will get us through it, but he wants US to know it too. He wants us to display our child-like faith, just as these girls in Thailand have so beautifully shown me.
