You spend weeks ahead of time helping them practice, making sure that they have all the supplies, clothing, equipment they might need.
On the day of, you feed them a healthy meal, have them take showers, get a good night's sleep.
You drive them where they need to be, loaded with water bottles, snacks, gear...
You get there on time {or early} so that you are certain not to miss a moment. So that your child KNOWS without a moment's doubt, that their PERSON is there. Someone looking out at them from that audience/crowd LOVES them. Triumph or Failure, someone out there loves them, and thinks that they are the stars, the sun and that the moon all put together. Win or lose, there will be hug waiting.
But what if a child has no one? A child whose family has done the unthinkable to them. A child who will look out at an audience jam packed with families. Moms, dads, grandparents, aunts... everyone there with someone who loves them.... A child who diligently goes to school, but returns home to a bunk among 60 other bunks. Not alone, but alone. A child who will go to bed with no one to celebrate them. As if she never achieved anything.
That wasn't the story last night for a girl I love. Something beautiful happened last night and it was an honor I will never forget with my "Jane." When I came for a visit last week, she told me there was going to be a dinner show for her school. She begged me to come and said "I really, really, really want you there." She's 17 years old, an age when many teens don't want to even admit they have a mom, let alone be seen with one. But she needed a mom, a family to celebrate her last night. We came, we ate, we sat on plastic chairs for 4 hours of traditional El Salvador dances, singing, comedy we didn't understand, an unusual raffle process and the crowning of a 2nd grade princess for the year.
It was all worth it for the moment she saw me waiting at our table.
"They said you were here and I could hardly believe it!! I ran right over to see you! I can't believe you came! I am so, so happy!!!"
She has been let down her entire life, and of course she expected nothing from me. Of course.
"I'm so nervous" she nervously said with a shake in her voice.
"You're going to be fantastic" I assured her. "You've practiced so much, and I will be watching. I'm so excited to hear you sing!!!"
Simple words, that come naturally to most moms. Simple words that hold a lot of weight when you normally have no one to say them to you. I told her she looked beautiful, and that I was so happy to be there with her.
And when she took to that stage I had butterflies in my belly for her just as I would for my flesh and blood kids. And I snapped picture after picture, with a huge mile plastered to my face. We all clapped louder and harder at the end than anyone in the audience.
And when she saw me from the stage...... with a huge grin on her face....... oh my.
Honor. I was so honored that she asked me to be her person. When the Bible says to care for the orphan, we often think the command solely means
"care for their physical needs."
But what if it means so much more than that? To love. To show up. To be a family.
What if doing just one is not enough. What if Jesus asks us all someday, did you care for the orphan? And we say "yes, we fed them and clothed them Lord."
What if He says,
"What if I only fed and clothed you?
What if I didn't sacrifice a happy, perfect life, for people so un-deserving of my sacrifice?"
What if I didn't die to make you my family?
She asked for me. My heart will never be the same.
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