God’s teaching me through my 8-year-old.
Zoey is effectively running a non-profit. She’s raised over $400 selling her artwork so she can make care packages for homeless people. Basically all on her own. I’m just her taxi driver. We keep them in the car and hand them out as we see a need. What prompted this was a trip to Bass Pro Shop with her Dad, where she saw someone picking through the trash. Her heart was broken and she worried about all the homeless people in the world. She wanted them to be healthy and taken care of. She was going to get money to help. At first, she wanted to buy a house, but then we settled on care packages.
When Zoey first proposed the idea, I cringed. I’m the person that averts any eye contact with people, even people I know!! I sure as heck don’t want to be driving around handing out bags from my car to homeless people in the middle of a pandemic! Also, holding up traffic isn’t my idea of a fun time. But I let God convict me. She was exercising the compassion that God gave her. I could not squash the Holy Spirit’s prompting in my daughter with my own selfishness and fear.
The other day we went out to run errands. As per usual now, I look everywhere we go for homeless people so we can pass out the bags. I saw a lady with a sign that said “I didn’t know what invisible felt like until I became homeless.”
WOW! I wonder how LOVED and SEEN she felt when Zoey handed her the bag with a giant smile on her face through the window. I wonder if she felt invisible when she read the letter Zoey wrote explaining she was doing this so they were healthy and taken care of. I wonder how Jesus felt when he saw the obedience of not only myself, but of Zoey, to show love and compassion and care to those who need it most.
It’s easy to overlook the homeless. There are so many. And the camps are exhausting to look at. And it makes my neighborhood look trashy. The needles I see and pick up in my street are infuriating. Sometimes, I don’t want to have compassion or generosity towards them. I want to let someone else deal with it and I’ll avert my eyes and act like I don’t see them. BUT NO LONGER. Jesus made Zoey see and she was moved with compassion. Are there people milking the system? Yes. Does that mean they don’t deserve to be seen as Jesus sees them? ABSOLUTELY NOT.
Friends, God calls us to see people as he sees them. We might not feel moved to help the homeless. But we should be moved to see EVERYONE as Jesus sees. Worthy of kindness and grace. Worthy because they are children of God.
Friends, If you have children be sure to help them learn to respond to the Holy Spirit. And don’t for ONE SECOND stop them from acting on that prompting. God does amazing things through children.
Elizabeth Horn 