His Love Translates

Have you ever had an experience in life that leaves you completely astounded and in awe of Jesus?! His ways are so much higher than ours and when we take the time to recognize His works, it can be overwhelming. I hesitate to share my story, but I believe the Lord has revelation and a lesson of application in it for us. It cannot be coincidence that this happened literally hours (to be more precise, 16 hours) before Pastor announced Isaiah 58:1-12 as the focus of our fast.

A few weeks ago, while I was running an errand, I noticed a couple with two small children sitting under a tree in the parking lot. Upon further look, I could see the man was holding up a cardboard sign with the words “Please help. Food or money for rent. Please we have kids.” I am not going to lie; my first reaction was negative towards them. You see individuals all the time asking for help in that manner, but I had never experienced a setting where children were involved. How could they use their babies as pawns to ask for help?! Yes, it upsets me that those thoughts, even for a second, entered my mind, but I am being transparent with you to present a point.

We cast so much judgement on people that we stop seeing them as humans in need. We don’t know their story, nor do we know the hurt and pain they have suffered. This was a family – a man that once worked hard in his country and a woman with babies struggling to feed and shelter them. I know not every situation is like that, but we still can’t cast judgement. Our job is not to determine who is worthy of help, but to discern when Jesus orders us to take action.

After I repented of my thoughts and asked the Lord for wisdom and direction in the situation, He told me exactly what to do: show them His love. So, I got out of my car and approached the couple. It turned out they were Romanian refugees that had fled their country less than a month ago. Since they spoke very little English, communicating was extremely difficult, but it was clear their trip to America was not a first-class Delta flight. I could only imagine how exhausting and dangerous their journey was, especially with two babies.

As the wife and I grocery shopped, I kept thinking how was I going to minister to her with such a language barrier. Then Jesus opened a door. She asked me if I had children and as I scrolled through my photos for a picture, I came across the video of my daughter getting baptized. It was a perfect; I was able to communicate that the blessing was from Jesus and also show her baptism in Jesus name. She knew immediately who I was talking about – she pointed up and then touched her heart. It was in that moment I realized the love of Jesus needs no translation; He speaks for himself. While I wasn’t able to witness much to them, we prayed together and I know a seed of His love was planted.

I have been reflecting on my experience and asking the Lord to show me if there is more He wants me to learn from it; the surrounding circumstances seemed all too odd for the lesson to not be deeper than what I initially received. As Pastor said yesterday, God shows you things in pieces – there is typically a beginning, a middle and an end. It is usually the thought you can’t shake that brings the greatest revelation, and I believe that holds true in this as well. My mind continues to go back to how I felt as she was filling the grocery cart – put simply, my flesh was screaming. That “warm fuzzy” feeling you get (or are supposed to get) when you help others was nowhere to be found.

We often have the mentality that helping others and sacrificing will be the easy part and finding people to help and minister to will be more of the challenge. We have it backwards. The Lord is going to bring people into our paths; the difficult part will be noticing when God presents an opportunity and then sacrificing to the level of His expectations. The $5.00 handout and a “Jesus loves you” is not going to cut it anymore; He expects much greater sacrifice from us. Your flesh is going to kick and scream the whole way, some of us more than others, but if we listen to what Jesus is teaching us and apply it in our works, we can show His love (not a counterfeit love) to others and break the chains of bondage in their lives.

Lord, I thank you for Your love and guidance in my own life. I pray you order my steps daily, and help me to see and witness in love to those that you direct in my path. Jesus, help me to speak words of wisdom to them and bring glory to Your mighty name. Amen.