the LOVE

She was crying, and I was there. I opened my arms to her, but she didn't come. I went to her, picked her up, turned her around and sat her in my lap. I rocked her back and forth while I sang to her softly. The Love...the LOVE. Ohh...it was deep.

My heart was saying,

"I know...I know, child. I see you. You're a mess. You're a mess and you'll be a mess for a while. You've been wounded. But listen...do you hear it? Oh, child, you can rest in my arms. Love is here. I know you are afraid, but child, listen to me sing to you. Find comfort in the rhythm of love that is swaying you back and forth. Into your brokenness I AM COMING with all of my love because this love alters brokenness into wholeness. Sit here in this embrace, BEHOLD the love that surrounds you now, and just listen while I sing over you. Listen...rest...and stay. You cry now, but you will sing. Your legs are frail now, but they will dance. Come. Come and receive this living, healing water. The One who gives does not hold back. He too knows brokenness, because He was broken for us. Be still and hear that love swirling all around you. It is never not here."

"No dark can consume light; no death greater than this life. We are not forgotten. Hope is found when we say: I believe in sun even when it's not shining. I believe in love even when I don't feel it. And I believe in God even when He is silent. I believe, I believe..."

But if we love...

*Pictures will be added soon.

She's as gorgeous as gorgeous comes with her almond eyes and glowing smile. You would never know the suffering she has endured or how persistent sickness has been throughout her short life.

Her mother: murdered.
Her father: left.
Her extended family: abandoned her because she is a girl.
Before she was one: she lived on the streets of a slum.
Sickness: parasites in her brain resulting in seizures as contracted through the slum water she drank.

Her name: "Light."

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.

It's true. It's really, really true.

There are forces that do not want that child alive. But greater forces, namely, Jesus, have another idea in mind.

He is Healer, and He is healing her.
He is Abba, and He has adopted her.
He is love, and He loves her.
He is Emmanuel, and He is with her.

When I think of her, two words come to mind:

Sloppy. Love.

When the younger children cry, she runs toward the crying. Even if they are in another part of the house. I don't know any other 5-year-olds like that.

When she comes up to me, she leans on me in such a way that if I move, she will lose her balance and fall. She leans all of herself on me, and on anyone who will let her. It's one of the many ways she exchanges love.

When I am not expecting it, she will say, "Auntie, I am liking you so much," or, "Auntie, I am thanking for you so much."

Note: Her words to me say far more about her than about me.

One day, she followed me up to the roof, took my hand in hers and said so maturely, "Auntie, thank you for your help to me." In disbelief and choked back tears I said to her, "Jyoti, how am I helping you?"


"You are giving work."

She understands that my being there is meant as love for her. She gets it...that check cleared.

Another interaction with her is always at the forefront of my memory. It was early morning, and we were just sitting together. She was sitting -- leaning back -- in my lap as I swayed her back and forth to the rhythm that Love was beating in me.

Later that day that memory was rewritten in my mind. Instead of seeing me holding her, I saw Jesus holding me as I leaned into His love and shared it with the one in my arms.

When I held her, He held me. I held her because He holds me. I held her as if I were holding Him -- loving her as I love Him, because He loves me and has given me the Spirit who readily loves.

From Him and to Him and through Him are all things.

From Him: "We love because He first loved us." 1 John 4:19

To Him: "Whatever you do to the least of these brothers of Mine, you do to Me." Matthew 25:40

Through Him: "We have come to know and rely on [believe] the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." 1 John 4:16

"No one has seen God at any time. But if we love one another, God's love abides in us, and is perfected in us."
1 John 4:12

It looked like Jesus loving Jesus through Jesus. And it was beautiful.