I could say one word, ‘WOW’ and be done with this blog. This would be the word to sum up the past 3.5 weeks, as well as last weekend.
Last weekend as we piled in the car to go to our kids club, God told me to speak to the children about the story of Jonah – Specifically, don’t play hide and seek with God. Little did I know that around the same time my mouth uttered the words, “Don’t run from God when you make bad choices” to the children, back in the jungle, my backpack with my MacBook Air, iPad, GoPro, and bag of jewelry from all of the countries we have been to, was being stolen.
After some yummy ice cream, we arrived back home. I walked into my room and noticed my backpack was missing. I quickly looked beneath beds and under sheets. No backpack to be found. I scurried outside to find and tell Papi… his heart dropped. There was hurt in his eyes as he prayed with me right then that we would find my things. He finished praying and told me that Juan was missing. Thoughts flooded my head. I didn’t want to believe the only thing that made sense – Juan stole my backpack. “Juan was my brother. He would never do that despite his track record. He’s loved me so well and told me how much he loves God. Mi hermano, Juan? No, no way.”
My girl, Morgan, and I walked down the dirt road outside of our house looking for my backpack for about 20 minutes and then thought, “At this point, prayer is more powerful than our own eyes.” As we walked home, the song ‘Out of Hiding’ by Steffany Gretzinger came on my phone.
“Come out of hiding you’re safe here with me
There’s no need to cover what I already see
…..
Cause I loved you before you knew it was love
And I saw it all still I chose the cross
And you were the one that I was thinking of when I rose from the grave
…..
There’s no reason to stand at a distance anymore
You’re not far from home”
I began praying those words over mi hermano. I went to bed praying for Juan…I prayed that he would come out of hiding.
The next morning, I was having some Jesus time in my hammock. As I looked back and forth down the muddy, dirt road, God reminded me of the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-24. This is a story of a man who divides his land between his two sons. One of them ventures off and makes very poor decisions with his inheritance and the other is wise. The one who ventures off eventually realizes that the choices he has made are wrong and so he decides to come back home to his father. His father welcomes his son home with open arms.
Right then, God whispered to me, “He’s coming home HB.” Whether or not, Juan was physically coming back to where we were, with or without my stuff, he was going to return to God.
No less than an hour later, I found out that Juan had been on the porch of our hosts’ other house since 4 AM (about an hour away). He said that the Holy Spirit convicted him and he needed to return my things. I was told later that day at church, with tears streaming down his face, he gave his life to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Papi told us that Juan would not be able to return to the jungle, but they would allow him to come back to get his belongings.
I heard the dogs barking and the crunching of the tires on gravel and I knew that Juan was arriving. As I walked into the communal area, my eyes locked with Juan. Though he quickly looked away and left the room, my eyes never left him. The very man that stole my belongings less than 24 hours before, was the very man I wanted to hug and say, “Bro, I forgive you and I’m not mad at you.” As Juan came back into the room to pack his belongings, I walked up to him, and as both our eyes filled with tears, we hugged each other and cried. He apologized for what he had done. He said he didn’t understand why we were treating him the way we were – showing him love and grace. He said, “If you guys were Costa Ricans that this happened to, then I would have already been dead.” The rest of the night we laughed and cracked jokes with our Spanglish, trying not to think about his wake-up call at 4 AM to say goodbye.
Imagine coming home and having to apologize for what you had done and the very person you are apologizing to is the one who loves you hardest. I’m sure some of you reading this have had to do that, I sure have. Juan made the choice to come back, gather what was left of his clothes, and apologize. He didn’t have to. But God worked inside of him. God gave him strength and courage to confess his sin and ask for forgiveness. Though Juan had to leave the jungle, I know that he is leaving forgiven and free and that’s the best feeling you can have. I’ll probably never know the real story as to what happened that day (there were too many stories to count floating around), but what I do know is that the Lord spoke to Juan and he was obedient.
God did something in my heart that weekend. He showed me how to show abundant grace. We have all received abundant grace from Christ… practicing it is completely different. I didn’t realize it at the time over those 18 hours… but there was never a time that I was mad at Juan. I was upset at the fact that my stuff was gone, but not at Juan. WHY? Because of grace. There was never a doubt in my mind that Juan was not going to come home. I just didn’t know if it was going to be in the timeframe that I was still living in the jungle. I was able to talk to Juan and tell him that we are all sinners and we all mess up. But what is going to be crucial for him now, is who/what he turns to as he ventures to find his next step.
Tears streamed down my face and I could barely breathe as I said goodbye to this man… mi hermano. It’s crazy to think that you can feel this way about someone who stole things from you, but I promise you can… I’m living proof. I know that I was operating out of overflow from the grace God has shown me in my own life.
Where is Juan now? That I don’t know. I pray that he is choosing to seek God’s face… That the Lord eliminates distractions from his old life and that He is listening to our Father. I thank God for giving me Juan this month. What a blessing he was to me.
So yes, ‘WOW’ is the word. WOW to what happened that weekend. WOW to God giving me another brother. WOW to God showing me grace. WOW to me being able to show abundant grace. WOW to God working in Juan’s life. Just WOW, God… WOW.
**Mi hermano’s real name was not used for privacy purposes.
***My MacBook Air and iPad were returned, but my backpack, GoPro, and jewelry from other countries was not.
