My heart hurts.
Another day, more news of children suffering. One kid is neglected because mom prioritizes her boyfriend above her child. Two others are abandoned so mom and dad can get high. Another story of a system that has failed to care for vulnerable children in foster care and in the womb.
My kids go to public school and they come home with hearts full of concern for their friends who are not cared for at home. Mommy, she gets laughed at because she is dirty. Mommy, he has bruises. Daddy, she falls asleep every day in class.
I volunteer in a local school and I am overwhelmed by the brokenness I see when I walk through the doors. Little girls who crave male attention. Boys who have no respect for authority because they’ve never known someone to care enough to show them loving authority. Second graders who have already lost the light of hope from their eyes.
Hopelessness. Thats what I see in the eyes of these children. Not high school kids, its almost too late by that point. The hope is lost in kindergarten, first, and second grade. By third grade they’ve seen porn or have been sexually abused. They’ve seen mom get high or daddy drunk, they may have been exposed to drugs themselves. Third graders are raising 2 year olds because no one else will.
Some days I want to throw in the towel. Some days I want to throw up. I want to stop answering the phone, I want to pull out of my volunteering duties, I want to bring my kids home and teach them there so that they will not have to experience this hurt.
And all the while, I’m praying, “Jesus, come quickly.”
I’m reminded of the power of the gospel. Malachi 4:6 tells us Elijah the prophet will come and “turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers.” How will he do it? Malachi is a bit vague, but the gospels aren’t. John the Baptist (Elijah) did not come proclaiming power and salvation in his name. He came proclaiming the Kingdom and pointing to the one who was to come. John came and proclaimed Christ.
Ultimately, the message of John is the message of hope found in another. It was Jesus who had to increase and John who had to decrease. John spoke boldly against sin and offered hope in the fiery baptism of Jesus.
Where is Elijah? Where are the prophets of God proclaiming the powerful, life-changing message of Christ to people who are REALLY struggling? Where is the hope being offered among abusive parents and neglected children. They need the hope of eternal life, but they can’t see their eternal need because their temporal situation is so dire.
We need the message of Elijah, proclaiming hope in the wilderness and demanding repentance from sin. But, even as we pray for Elijah to step up and step out, even as we pray for the courage and influence of Elijah ourselves, we need also to be the surrogate fathers loving these hurting children.
We don’t just need Elijah, we need men and women to step up and step out with the heart of Joseph and Rufus and Rufus’s mother. We need God’s people to step up and become fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters to those who are actually and figuratively orphaned. There are no orphans with God, and as his children, part of our imitation of our Father must be to fight against orphanhood and abuse in our culture by serving as his ambassadors to the fatherless and the abused.
My heart hurts and I know that Jesus is enough. I also know that Jesus has commissioned his church to serve as missional outposts on the frontier of this fallen world, proclaiming freedom to the prisoners and offering hope. As his hands and feet, we can do better than being heart-broken, we need to be busy about his business.
