…
Moments later the sleeping girl on my left woke up to discover that her mother (who left her side for the first time to go the bathroom) was no where to be seen, and she burst into tears. To keep her from running outside, I held her as she panicked. As soon as mom came out of the bathroom the crying girl was overcome with relief.
Somehow the toddler boy in the blue jacket made his way over the people to the front door handle. He couldn’t open it, but to keep him from getting hit by the constant motion of the door I reached to pick him up and his defense kicked in — the bundle of joy would curl up as if I were tickling him and give me the cheesiest grin possible. The toddler boy in the blue jacket reminded me that despite the chaos of the moment joy is still to be found.
Donations seemed to be as constant as the traffic through the door. After opening the door for the boy again to take his baby bother, who I assumed has a fever, outside for fresh cool air, I was closing the door when a man gently pushed it back open and without a word handed me a bag and kept walking. It was for us, it was filled with milk. Earlier a woman came in with bags full of toys, and our old friend Demetrius visited again with a handful of cookies “For the babies! For the babies!”
5:45 p.m. we announced it was closing time and the families began to gather their things. I got to hold the joyful boy in the blue jacket while his father finished his prayers to Allah. After we took a group picture with the refugees, I heard “Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me…” through all the commotion.
The sweet young girl had no clue what she was singing, she simply liked our attention, our awe and our smiles.
I imagine the Lord has the same reaction when He hears us praise his name. When He looks down into our chaos, our commotion, our mess and see us turn to Him, praise His name and attempt to impress Him, I imagine that He can’t help but smile.
Yes, Jesus loves her! Her and all of them. In the middle of heartbreak, confusion, humility, and desperation is Jesus and it’s where the stage is best set to see how God provides. These families were given shelter when there was “no room in the inn” and us volunteers were given a strong dose of historical reality.
Families — just like ours, were being forced to run for their lives to escape the same terrorist groups that we also fear.
We took the trash out and left the rest of the cleaning for the morning. We escaped to a local restaurant to debrief the monumental day. We shared the emotions that flooded each of us.
We talked about the baby that had to be checked for a pulse, the young girl screaming from cleaning a wound on her knee, the by-passers, the destruction, and the cause of it all.
Discussion later flowed into the fact that Hannah was meant for this. That her “yes” has caused an impact on these people. That she is simply showing people the love of the Father by providing shelter in a snow storm, or a warm cup of tea to the kind boy who stood outside to conserve space inside.
We discussed how we now have had the opportunity to be the listeners of heroic stories.
She simply said “yes.”
