what God values

Yesterday I was part of a memorial service for a baby that lived only 3 weeks. Last night I attended a dinner to hear from a Thai woman who was herself beaten by her father, left home and was taken in by an orphanage, and has now started a home for Thai children who are similarly victims of abuse.

In the memorial service there was a huge outpouring of love. Strong men wept openly and there was no shame in it. It was right to love and to grieve, to express how valuable this child was despite his short life. And it was a great contrast to what we heard about later that day about how the world has treated the children taken in at the home in Thailand.

It boggles my mind that people can mistreat children. It shows how damaged our world is, that people who are wounded can in turn wound other people, even children. The injustice and inhumanity of it makes me ashamed and angry and sick.

Jesus loves the little children. It grieves him to see them hurt and abused. He hurts with the premature baby struggling to live. He hurts with the child afraid of her or his own father or mother (who will later learn to distrust all adults and come to despise her/himself and then repeat the cycle unless someone intervenes).

Jesus knows the horrors of our human experience because he has lived them himself. No one would give up room in their house, so he had to be born among animals. He lived as a member of an oppressed minority in a world ruled by the brutality of the Roman legions. He died as a result of betrayal by one who had said he was his follower, and with the entire system of justice perverted and corrupted against him.

What does God value? He values every human life. He values each one so much that he himself entered our human existence and died a horrific and unjust death to take on himself the penalty for our unjust wounding of each other and our world. And then he rose again to demonstrate that he is the true Lord of this world and to offer us life with him. This is the wonderful message that we who are Christ’s followers are called to live and declare.