Cradle of Love

"There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread." 

-Mother Teresa

 They say that love makes the world go around; no matter how bad things can be….I have been thinking about this one for a while. As I type this message my heart is pounding. I would like to be transparent with you and let you walk into my life for the few minutes you will be reading this. This year has been the best, yet, hardest year of my life thus far. I have had many, many good times. I met new people and became very close to them, yet lost some great things in my life. God’s timing really is perfect. I was hurt this semester, and it came by surprise. I felt as if I had lost a part of my heart, or more like it had been ripped away from me, and I wasn’t ready for that. I was confused on what love was. How can people take love, this gift that we search for in life, and hurt someone with it? After many weeks of thinking, frustration, and silence, I got on my knees and had to pray to God. I was desperate for God to intervene in my life and show me His love. More than ever, at that moment, I knew that God’s love is not like any love of this world. It is endless, and truly pure. His love is perfect….   

I yelled out loud to God,

“I don’t care about anything else right now, I need you right away!!!”

With tears streaming down my face, my knees buried in the carpet, I sat in silence. There was nothing more important to me at that moment. Peace surrounded me, and love wrapped me in His arms….

Now, let’s fast forward to this past Friday, June 17^th. A few other girls and I from the study abroad group visited an orphanage to volunteer. Prior to this visit, I had never been around an orphanage of any sort, let alone a group of children. With that said, I did not know what to expect. Well, scratch that. I had the assumption that the orphanage would be what we have all seen on t.v. about the kids in Africa: starving children with flies attacking them. Thankfully, this was not the case.

As we pulled up to the orphanage, I was amazed at how beautiful it was. We were greeted by Davona Church, director of the Cradle of Love orphanage. 

At the time of our arrival the toddlers had just woken up. As soon as they saw our group they came running to greet us. I’ve never seen a child so excited. They were beautiful children who didn’t realize the reality of their situation. They appeared to be helpless, but they weren’t. Love was holding them.

As we continued on our tour of the orphanage we got to see more of the kids, and met the daughters of the director. I believe the youngest was named Mariah, and she was so very precious. This little girl was about 4 or 5 years old and was taking care of all the children. She knew all 48 names and treated them each with such care. I have never, ever seen a child care for anything like this little girl did. It was truly amazing. It touched my heart when I saw her wipe the tears off of a little boys’ face and calmed him.

               

“Why are you crying?” she said, “Its okay. Everything will be okay…”

Love, it’s a gift to us. I will never understand how a parent can love their child, and then abandon them. Maybe there was no love there at all. I will never understand God’s love for us; graceful, merciful, beautiful. But I do know one thing. Love does exist, and it is alive and working.  I saw love at the orphanage. I saw love manifest itself amongst a group of toddlers, each caring for one another. No matter how big or how small, love abides. No matter how weak we are, the heart of love still beats, giving us hope.  

xx