I recently had the privilege and life-changing experience of traveling on my first international mission trip to Guatemala with Charleston Southern University. We spent the majority of our time at a Christian orphanage, Ceracaif, a home for 55 children. Almost all of them have been sexually abused.
One night we joined the owners of the orphanage, two amazing sisters, for tea and bread in the kitchen. As I sipped on the warm tea, I had flashes in my mind of the children earlier that day and how they did not hesitate to show us love. I thought of little Julia and her contagious giggle. I recalled learning her hair was so badly matted when she came to the orphanage that it had to be shaved. Many of these children come from poverty and abuse-filled backgrounds inconceivable in America. Yet these children laugh, give their precious handmade crafts to strangers, and give huge hugs to people who cannot even speak their language.
As I sat in the aged folding chair at the wooden table, I looked at the mug in my hand. In that moment, God spoke. The mug was chipped around the rim and had several thin dark cracks along the side. In the center of the mug was the faded image of a bear and the words, in dulled red, “Jesus loves me.” This simple phrase was the answer. God’s love can overcome all “chips and cracks” in our lives, and these children understood that God loved them and they showed His love. I was changed in that moment.
A quote from Saint Francis of Assisi sums up my transformed heart: “Lord, grant that I might not so much seek to be loved as to love.”
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