Innate Compassion in Children

Yesterday in our 2-year-old class, I saw two amazing examples of love and compassion.

Devin was having difficulty leaving Mom when Abby and her mom arrived. The mothers talked and registered the children, and Abby saw that Devin was struggling. She patted his arm and said, "Devin, do you want to be my friend?" over and over. That softened him up and he did come in without any tears. And Abby stayed with him to play puzzles, hear the Bible story, eat snack, and more! In the Bible story of Jesus loving the children, I said each child's name, "And Jesus loves Abby," "And Jesus loves Daisy,"... and on and on. Afraid that I was going to leave Devin out, Abby called out "And Devin!" She was definitely a good friend to him! And I told her so. "Abby, you were so kind to Devin. Thank you for being a good friend." She smiled!

Then at the beginning of class as well, we'd encouraged two hesitant girls, Hannah and Ryann, to come on into the classroom and see if they could find the bunnies outside our window (we have a lot of wild bunnies out there). While at the window, Kolin must've sensed something because he turned to one of them and gently patted her on the arm.

How cool is that! To me, that's watching little ones made in the image of God show love, compassion, and empathy. These little ones never cease to amaze me!

AIDS Exhibit

My family and I went through the World Vision AIDS Exhibit Tour at our church here in Loveland last week. It was amazing! Don't miss it if it's in your area...take families and groups of children...sponsor it at your church...whatever. It's life-changing.

We each started out with a different I-pod that told the story of one of four children. Heart-breaking stories. By the time I walked through Kombo's simulated home, the AIDS highway, and his grandmother's restaurant, I experienced his mother dying of AIDS with him lying beside her. And when I got to the clinic, I discovered whether I had AIDS or not (I won't tell you the outcome so I don't spoil it for you).

Then after leaving the clinic, we went into a chapel where we heard the Scripture "I was hungry and you fed me...naked and you..." Then we chose a child who needed sponsorship and prayed for that child.

We could put the child back if we wanted. But could we? How could we? We'd given our hearts to these orphans in Africa. We left with three children to sponsor (my husband had already been sponsoring a child for 8 years so now we have 4).

Even more noteworthy, the child I chose is named "Christ." I kept thinking 'How can I say no to Christ?' I mean this was definitely the embodiment of "I was hungry...I was alone...I was naked...I was afraid...and what did you do?" I couldn't say no to Christ.

And that's really a metaphor for all of us. When we hear that there are 15 million children orphaned by AIDS, how can we say no to Christ and do nothing?

To learn more about this amazing experience, go to http://www.worldvision.org/aoa.nsf/aids/events_experienceaids