Comfort Eyes

This past March my mother celebrated her 60^th birthday.  A woman who’s eyes I sought comfort in so many times in my life.  From visits to the doctor as a child, counselling sessions as a teenager and labour pains as an adult.  Within the depths of her pupils, I found solace.  Whatever circumstances I faced, if I could eyeball my mother I knew there was peace.  In that place was lack of judgment because out of every one in the world, mum knew me best. 

When I would feel unhappy or depressed, my mum would be the one who would lift my spirits and tell me that I WASN'T FAT OR ugly or uselss!  She would defend my self-worth and pick it back up again.  Everyone loves my mum and it's not hard to understand why once you get to know her.  

On her own, she raised five of us children, even when she was married to my father.  She worked long and hard to give us the best life she knew how to give.  Yet she wasn’t perfect.  But she was there.  Her eyes never failed to meet the expectations I had of them; to melt away the problems of the world.

So in knowing this love, I wonder what it’s like for those who don’t have those eyes to sink into-those eyes that bring comfort, that heart that brings love.  Are they the ones who seek comfort food, or who expend themselves on work or exercise?  Are they the ones who abuse their bodies to try and satisfy that need for comfort?  If our children don’t have those eyes to look into and know that everything is going to be okay, then how will they survive?

This is the plight of the orphan, the cry of the boy who stopped me on the street a couple of weeks ago to tell me has no mum or dad.  To ask me to help him.  Will I be the one that will fill the gap, the wide-aching, gut wrenching gap that's been left by the death of his mother and father?

A few months ago, I spent a couple of days in Addis with friends.  Over two days, we attended a concert and a church service.  On both occasions we as an audience were challenged to help meet the needs of the orphan epidemic that exists here in Ethiopia.  The challenge was expressed in many ways but one of those was through a poem entitled, Whose Children are They?  It was all in Amharic but I got the gist of it. 

THOSE children who walk the streets and beg for food and make you feel uncomfortable with their stench…whose children are they?  They are YOURS (the words sent goose bumps down my spine.)  They are MINE.  They are our responsibility.  They are the responsibility of the church.  They are the responsibility of God's children who see them and are able to give to them. 

Even this morning I spoke passionately to my daughter about US (her...I...the six of us that are left) and why we are in Ethiopia.  "God wants to impact this world" I said..."And HE [the Great Almighty God] does THAT by using PEOPLE [small, incompetent, sinful US] to do that!  He places them strategically in places [and spheres of influence] so that ultimately HE can accomplish what He wants to accomplish.  We can either live selfishly and accomplish what WE want to accomplish, or do what HE has asked us to do.  And for us right now, THIS is where He has strategically placed US."...a bit harsh, I know.  BUT she gets it...I know she does.  God is using her in this place EVEN at 12 years of age.

WE are responsible to give THEM [the 4 million orphaned children] comfort and LOVE and nurture and CARE.  Eyes that look into the depths of their souls and say, it’s going to be okay…I don’t judge you but I love you- unconditionally. 

I read an interesting blog recently about a woman in South America who had adopted kids from one particular country.  Her revelation was that in the thousands of dollars she had spent on adopting these children, was the potential for those children, or children of that country, whose parents were so desperate to give their children a better life that they would put them up for adoption, to keep their families together. 

The statistics that were shared in the service we went to were that around 22,000 Ethiopian children had been adopted out overseas over a 5-10 year period.  While I don’t disagree with the adoption of children, I think how much money had gone into that and what would change for those children if they were able to be supported in their own family, in their own country. 

Our friends from BringLoveIn have a program called Keep One Home...this addresses that exact need.  And THEY are looking for sponsors right now.  Check out their website if you can.  We will have similar programs running in the future.  

I am passionate about this.  

This is a need that needs to be addressed.  

There is a way, a solution.  All we need to help solve this program is for good people to strategically place themselves, their spare cash, their arms where God wants them to be.  

"All it takes for evil to exist in the world is for good men and women to do nothing"