Children are beautiful. They are innocent. Children possess purity,
the ability to love and be loved. Children are individuals, yet are
unified in some unexplainable way. Children have light in their eyes,
joy in their hearts and growth in their bones. They want knowledge, they
want strength, they want guidance. They have faith.
I have fallen in love with a child.
Camp Moses and Camp Joshua are two places filled with love and at the
same time, hurt and yet you can’t ignore the overwhelming joy. The
children there have a story and now my story will be forever linked with
theirs. The word “orphans” has a new meaning to me. It is now a name, a
face, a pair of beautiful brown eyes that change your life. These
children have so much and yet so little. Their lives are full of
paradoxes. Even though their father and mother abandon them the Lord
holds them close (Psalm 27:10). They have the innocence of most
children, but they have seen more tragedy than I could imagine to
experience in my lifetime.
I have fallen in love with a child.
But I haven’t just fallen in love with these children. I have fallen
in love with a child I have known forever, myself. I have fallen in love
with the child I am in the eyes of my heavenly father. I love that the
characteristics of children also apply to me. I know that because I am a
child of God there is a unity between me and these children that have
stolen my heart here in Tanzania. I walk in freedom knowing I can cry
out Abba, Father, to the God who created the universe. I am strengthened
by the words he gives me, the same words that spoke the universe into
existence. It brings me joy knowing that my Father holds me close. I am
challenged to have a child like faith. I am a beautiful child of the
King of Kings. I am a princess.
I have fallen in love with a child.
