Guest Blog by Chip (Steven) Addington, my son, who just returned from a trip to Haiti with the ministry Healing Haiti.
On my first full day In Haiti we went to
an orphanage for developmentally or physically disabled kids. Our job was to
take several of them to a local hotel pool and help them with water therapy.
Really just a chance for them to stretch their limbs, and be out of the orphanage.
The kids couldn't walk so this is some of their only exercise.
When we arrived at the orphanage and met the kiddos we would be helping at the
pool, someone handed me a little boy, and he clung to me. A little guy named
Maxum, he was completely blind until an operation few months ago, and
still can't see much. He has severe mental challenges, he can't speak, and
can't understand much speech. He was put Into my arms and there he clung for
the next couple of hours.
He is the sweetest little kid. His only communication are smiles or little fits
and cries, hugs and little kisses when you hold him. He loved the pool, just
floated around with me and grinned as I tossed him up in the air. For the last
hour all he wanted was to be held and hugged, he cried when I handed him off,
while I went to the bathroom. So I just held him, and let him cling to me, and
I to him.
Little Maxum like all the kids at that orphanage were abandoned, some fished out of trash piles. As soon as Maxum was placed in my arms, and as soon
as I felt him take a breath and wrap tightly around my neck, I thought "my
God I would die for protect this kid" so fast was my love for him.
Especially knowing he had been abandoned. As we drove to the pool in the caged
back of a truck, every bump made me clutch him tighter. Making sure he wouldn't
hit his head or strain his neck. I had to remind myself to hold loosely enough
for him to breath.
When ever he clung tighter I would do the same, trying to tell him in the only
language he seemed to know that he he was safe and loved. His intense little
squeezes would only last a moment. A second of energy expended that gave me the
power to hold him close for another hour.
My instinct and desire to keep this child safe and to hold him tightly,
shielding him from the world around came on in seconds. I knew I only had him for a
couple of hours.
Imagine now how God feels for you. Someone he crafted with great care and toil.
A child he knows to the very core, for all of eternity. A person he has
traveled with and felt every pain they have.
How much tighter must He be holding you.
Cling tighter, he will feel it, even if it's just for a second. and he will do
the same.
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