Poor Little Waif

My mom told me that when I was a month old my dad's godmother came to see me and bring a baby present. She was an old Finnish lady who looked at me and said in Finnish, "Oh poor little waif. This is such a miserable world." My mom speaks Finnish so she understood what the woman was saying and thought, "what a thing to say to a new mom" but she says the older she gets the more she understands what the woman meant. There is so much suffering in this world.

As a mom I love my babies so much and want to protect them. They are so innocent, helpless, and dependent when they are born and I want to keep them safe from sickness, pain, and mean and evil people. I almost don't want to have anymore kids because I hate to bring them into our world. I wonder if God had similar feelings sending his son -- helpless babe born in a barn in a sinful world, so innocent and perfect. And God knew he would suffer and die in this world.

Last night my friend graduated from Divinity School. The president gave a commencement address on Christ's sufficiency. He told the graduates they would come across people in ministry for whom they would have nothing to offer...parents who lost a child in Iraq or Afghanistan, people with a terminally ill loved one. All they could do is point them to the unlimitless power and love of Christ. He is enough.

I just got my alumni class notes from college and read that the youth pastor of the junior high youth group I worked with during my senior year of college lost his wife to cancer this past July. Now he is single-parenting two little boys.

There was an article in yesterday's paper about how a Florida man was exonerated after 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. He was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old boy. Officials used modern DNA testing to determine he could not have been the rapist. He says he is not angry because he has God. I guess he has learned the sufficiency of Christ.

I love and delight in and am thankful for my children and I am glad that there are two of them to go through life together. I hope to raise them to be salt and light in this world. Knowing that they may choose not to follow Christ is heart-wrenching but I pray that they will. I wonder if rather than bringing more children into this miserable world we should adopt some children who are in need. Not right now--I don't have the energy--but if we were to keep having babies we probably never would. There are many "poor little waifs" who need a loving home "in this miserable world."