I Wonder

He just knocked on my door.  Came calling because he needed me.  The man-child who navigates an ocean of drifting little boats, children lost at sea.

Boys who WONDER what they have to offer  ~

Girls who offer what should be left to WONDER

He is a mobile man.  One who has struggled to remember the numbers and names of the streets his heart-home has sat on.  One who grieves with each address change, the laughter, the being known, the standing beside others who the world would disdain ~ the child.  He grieves his friends.  He's a tender one, looking beneath the clothes, the hair, the piercings, the failures.  Looking beneath the polish, the straight A's, the clothes, the successes.
Beneath silent screams of those who don't have a plan,  those who do, with all the boxes to check, those who are not only the least favored but the ones who adults say of,

     "you'd do better if you weren't hanging out with them."  

He can quote, for he's heard the recording from his well-meaning parents, "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Proverbs 13:20

But I WONDER...
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.  Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.  Psalm 82:3,4

*******

He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.  Micah 6:8
...I WONDER about our children.
I wonder, who is the weak and needy?  Is it the child who seeks counterfeit power and love, or the adults who helped set them adrift?
I wonder, who is the defender?  Is it the adults who assess who is fit, in mind and purpose, or the child who understands his peers reality and steps into it?
I wonder, who are the fatherless/motherless?  And might we all become the childless?

He just found out his friend from the last address, his right-next-door friend he baked cookies with ~ talked over the fence with ~ hopped rides to school with ~ listened as she shared her pain about being a girl who hates being the unwanted-wanted ~ this friend who had it all together and would graduate this year, heading off to her college of choice ~ this friend's boat capsized yesterday.  And I hold a grieving son once more, this time searching for words to comfort a man-child who's friend took her life.

I WONDER as I weep.  For the hard.  The pain.  The suffering.  The loss.  The empty.  And I search for the Gift.  The Gift that opened to all, the One that helps remove the mask and opens the mouth to speak, and says...

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.  For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior...I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.  I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' and to the south, "Do not hold them back.'  Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth - everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.  Isaiah 43

Pray.  Pray without ceasing, Favored One.  Live your prayers.  Be your prayers.  And in your prayers ask to see with the Father's eyes.  See the children.  See beyond the baggy pants.  See beyond the perfect outfit.  See beyond the F's.  See beyond the A's.  See through to the heart of the child and help them make room for you in the boat they crest the waves in.  

#112-116  One Thousand Gifts and counting

#112 - time

#113 - time

#114 - time

#115 - 6,645 days with Thomas Armstrong Benton

#116 - God's removal of some of my "cataract" vision