Heavy on a scale of one to ten. 10
Not too far back I came across this news video (that for whatever reason, through scowering my Facebook wall; I can not find the link) ... the clip was about an orphanage in Romania.
The quick run down is, this place was a medieval hospital of sorts before is became a home to the unwanted children of Romania. These children were below freezing cold conditions (inside a building), some naked and tied to beds and walls; others bodies are twisted and deformed to the point of immobility (or scooting on naked bums, as I saw one girl was). As the camera scanned over the room of children, you found the majority of them rocking back and forth; hitting themselves and screaming. Babies were on carts that you would find at a retirement home, several to a cart, wrapped like little burritos. Many of these children turn to self mutilation at a young age because they desire for human contact and do not know a loving touch. They were starving, sleeping in urine soaked sheets, multiple children to a bed, and looking straight through to... nothing when talked to. These children were abused and neglected to such an extent that many did not even know how to speak, just to scream so murderously, just to be heard by someone, anyone! There was a bit about a room that the children stayed in as called an "observatory room"; this room was prison like, complete with bars. During a sequence of events, the bars were changed to a glass window. The reason was to make the place look more friendly, I'm not really sure that was accomplished. Now you could see the torment of these children, as though they were in a fish tank. These children were the reason these women who cared for this particular orphanage had jobs... these children were so completely destroyed that they were not on the list of children able to be adopted (even when a pursued), so these particular children were not even adoptable by law.
So, I am about to take this to no mans land; a total twist. And I am actually a tad spooked to put this in writing. That video sat heavy on my heart for a decent amount of time. Trying to sort if God desired us to adopt from a place like that eventually or a slew of other possibilities, not the point; but I just was so broken over this. Telling my friends about this made me more angry about no one stepping up and saying "Precious children, I'll go adopt/cloth/love/feed ALL those kids" (typical adoptive parent psychosis)
I ended up just praying about their physical needs. But nope, the twist was a reoccurring photo in my head. Tried to draw it, thought about painting it, wanted to figure out how to stare at a wall and zap it on with my eyes when I couldn't make it exactly what was in my head.
Thus... the blog. Been told, I can be decently descriptive.
This photo was of a dark room, as though it was lit with Christmas lights. A subtle but eery glow. From the left corner is a metal crib; the metal on the crib actually looked cold, and the mattress was bare and stained with a doll like figure made from an old sock that a child must have been chewing on as he/she would try to comfortably fall asleep in much less than prison like comfort. Moving up and over to the right was a man in a rocking chair, holding a child that was clearly malnourished as revealed by the size of he/she size of leg and arm appearing from under this blanket. These deformed and malnourished limbs were held tight by this man. The face of this man was unclear, which made it all the more difficult to get on paper. Regardless of his face, this man was warm. He was a comfort to this child rocking steadily and the warmth of his breath was more than a sweet whisper from heaven on this child's face. Zooming out from this photo, the glass windows were revealed; screaming with demons. They shook the windows, pushing their faces on them. Screaming "that child is useless, is worthless, unloved, abandoned, unwanted, death..." They were vicious. Those horrid things whispered to the children on the other side of the glass as they slept, those same things. These children screamed in their sleep and their care takers wondered why.
Still steadily rocking, the man begins to whisper these words, "Jesus loves you this I know, for the Bible tells us so, Little ones to him belong, You are weak but He is strong. Yes Jesus Loves You, Yes Jesus Loves You, Yes, Jesus Loves You. The Bible tells me so." The child allows a crooked smile to break through, very obviously taking in every second of perfect love being offered.
Who was this man? My initial thought was... my husband. Seriously. I thought, my husband is so loving and precious, he would do this. Then I thought, wait, its Jesus himself... but I kind of have this playback, had it been Jesus, the room would have been filled with complete light and He and the child would have been dancing to beautiful number played with gypsy violins. Then it occurred to me, it could be Any Man, willing to be used by God. What is perfect pure religion... to care for the widow and the orphan.
As much as we pry on the lacking of the physical for orphans around the world, I personally find myself forgetting to pray for their spiritual well being. These children Need Jesus. They Need Hope. They Need Perfect Love. The conditions of many orphanages/foster homes/etc are horrendous; I would pray that as Human Beings, we would destroy selfish ambitions to help provide conditions fit for human and not fit for worse than a rat. But that we would also find more ways to point to Jesus for these kids. If they are untouchable and by so many children left to die world wide; this world will also fade, be a part of leading them to Christ.
Who wants to be that man in the chair? I do.
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