We visited the community that makes it's home in the city garbage dump for the second time this past week.
As our team stood around, conversing with the folks we'd met, I watched as several young men picked through the smoking, steaming piles of garbage, looking for recyclable materials. One young man with a huge bundle of plastic bottles has stopped foraging. He was so young compared to the others around him, maybe 22 years old. His eyes were hollow. He stared out past the garbage heaps, looking at the distant forest that was slowly being taken over by refuse. There was no light in his eyes; any hope and zeal that might have once been there had long since gone.
As I stood there, frozen by the scene, one equally young, incredibly pregnant woman walked out over the freshly-spread garbage. She navigated her way out to the young man. Her slight form looked even more gaunt next to him once she reached his side.
She reached up and laid her hand on his face, turning his eyes to look at her. She murmured something quietly, and grabbed his hand, gripping it fiercely. His face changed, the forced strength was replaced with a soft, broken smile. He replied in the same hushed, inaudible tone, and she forced a laugh, her eyes holding the same brokenness as his.
I couldn't look away from this scene. There was something unreal about the whole thing. This young family, on the verge of becoming bigger, made their home amidst the reeking refuse of a city. Their child would grow up surrounded by unspeakable poverty. The best things they could offer that baby would be what others had discarded. Their need was blatant, and great. They needed to be fed; they needed clothes to replace their rags; they needed to be rescued and restored; they needed Christ; and they needed to be held.
Thankfully there is Someone who is committed to doing that… and more.
For I, the Lord your God,
hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
I am the one who helps you.” – Isaiah 41:13 (ESV)
As I continue to absorb more and more senseless scenes like this one, I have no answers. I don't possess the strength to heal the hurts I see, at least, not on any strength of my own. But the Lord Almighty holds the world in the palm of his hand; he's that big! He is strong enough to be a provider not only for that unborn baby, but also for it's mother and father. And when I remember that he is everything good, and he is in the business of redeeming everything that is not, I am able to view scenes like that one with hope. He is after the hearts of that family. And he wants to hold not only their hands, but their lives.
Amen, Lord. Make it so.
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