Welcome back. You belong here.

So what does a man do the day after Christmas?
1. You Tube his son (4) on drums
2. Laundry
3. R’ to Target at 7am (me, home arbitrating new stuff and who gets it when)
4. Did I mention the drums, LOUD! In our Living Room! Can you say sound paneling?
5. Water backyard
6. Work day on Saturday, things seem to break (and not get fixed) during the holidays right?

Hope your Christmas was great. Probably one of the best moments was adopting a family on 7th and Lime Ave in the LBC. We brought over $500.00 of new toys, clothes, ham I baked myself, a Christmas tree and carols. 10 of our family members went to their one bedroom apartment, to visit Carinna, an immigrant single parent coming out of gangs and her 5 children ages 9 to 6 months. Her niece, teenager, is also staying with her during Christmas (here from Mexico). They both spoke of being abused as young girls by their parents and how they struggle forgiving them.

I spoke to them from John 6 of Jesus being the Bread of Life, of Him being our forgiveness, of the grace and mercy of our God. I told them that we hope the gifts would remind them of the love of God, that God knows exactly everything and yet loves them no matter what. She kept saying how tough it is to forgive. We can’t even imagine. She had tears in her eyes.

We listened to them, loved them, prayed together, our children playing with theirs as one family. They spoke mostly Spanish, but the language didn’t matter, we were there in the Spirit of God and love.

I learned so much that night, that even beyond “giving” to a family in need, that the message of forgiveness and grace is so important. The pain in Carinna’s life is evident, and no church or pastor can heal her heart, only the grace of God can.

And those gifts in her house, now opened, her children playing, perhaps on to the next thing, represent to her more than stuff. They represent the grace of God and the forgiveness of God offered to her.

I don’t think Carinna has yet experienced this forgiveness, but in a way she experienced it in those moments when we were one, our families in Christ, offering love and acceptance to each other. The rest is up to God.