Yesterday, at the Youthville ChalkART festival, I chalked St. Thomas in memory of children who are born with (or are unjustly given) significant reason to doubt their heavenly father. The idea to draw St. Thomas came to me last weekend after an encounter with my own little neglected friend whose name just happens to be Thomas. Filthy dirty by 9am, he squirmed and fidgeted as he struggled to explain to me the fresh "bump" on his head.
If there's ever a time when my own faith faulters, it happens when I hear about injustice to children.
I don't like it when St. Thomsas is referred to as "Doubting Thomas". (Why not "Brutally Honest Thomas" or "Real Person Thomas".) I guess it shouldn't bother me because it probably wouldn't bother Thomas. He knew it was doubt that ultimately lead to his great faith. Yesterday my icon of St. Thomas served to remind me that God can break through even the toughest humanity and reveal Himself.
St. Thomas reminds those of us who are called to hope, to have hope for these children; especially when we don't feel it. If we can get to that place of hope, then we are truly free to love them and to cry with them, to cherish and protect them---even when they call the image of Jesus next to the image of St. Thomas "Pimp-Tight".
We don't expect faith from these children. We don't wait for these kids to change before we embrace them. We don't wait for them to stop cussing, vandalising or running away. We allow change in our own hearts and we let God do the rest.
5 comments:
I loved watching your piece come together yesterday. It was truly amazing. The whole festival was great. I hope they do it again next year.
I seriously need to hang out with you when we come home. You are so refreshing.
One of our students from last year happened to be there Sat. He is back living at Youthville after multiple placements since he was 3 years old. We had one girl in 5th grade who had been in 7 different homes just that year. It is heart breaking and I think I surely cannot hear one more story worse than the one before. I was encouraged by the work Youthville in Newton is doing. I hope the fesival helped to bring more awareness to the orphans of this world and ways in which we can all love them more. Thanks for letting us know about chalk fest.
Love you!
I saw the pictures on Kim's Flickr. So cool! I agree about Thomas. The other people had the benefit of seeing Jesus in order to believe. The other disciples didn't believe the women when they came with the news. It's okay to have questions.
Melanie, love love love this post (& your blog).
What a cool event.
mary
Post a Comment