Little Boy

Little boy stands four feet high, without taking a breath... hovering above the wooden table, candle lit in front of his sweet smile. 

His love for Jesus shines through this one little prayer; four lines of heart wrenching words...

God, please help all the people who are hurt... all the people who don't have good places to live... all the people who live in the woods.... God please help them. 

Little boy cries sometimes because he feels hurt. He cries cries of loss, he cries about the deep hurt in his sweet little heart that aches with pain for the world... aches with pain for the people who don't have good places to sleep. Aches with pain because of defeat. 

Sometimes, places of defeat are places we find refreshment for the soul, because we become dependent on the one who fights defeat. 

It is in this season that hearts should be overflowing with utter gratitude for every blessing bestowed on the soul of the world... 

But reality speaks: Hurt, pain, injured souls, loss, deep deep scars of deep deep pain. 

And little boy loves Jesus with his big, beautiful heart, and little boy embraces the love that's all around him...

And he realizes that there is so much pain everywhere; in all those cracks and crevices of the world; the ones that we can't seem to fill with anything that is of or in this world. 

The reality is that this season speaks loudest when we realize how unjust everything is... When we realize that the only thing... The only One... who can save the soul and fill those crevices is Jesus Himself. 

Little boy embraces me and all the other people in the room with a warm loving soul and spreads the Christmas cheer by filling space with perspective. That's all. 

Some good, old fashioned perspective. 

Maybe that's what we need more of... Perspective to see that there are little boys like him all around the world who say prayers like that... ones who don't find warm places to sleep... ones who eat things from trash bins... 

Perspective to see that men, women, and children are trying to fill the crevices, but they aren't able to because they do not understand. They have no one to gently guide them through the journey of life; the journey of finding Jesus and loving Him more than anything. The journey is impossible without something... or someone, who will care for them, someone who will whisper words of hope into their hopeless souls. 

And, yet again, reality is that we cannot do it in our own strength. 

So that's when another Little Boy... Jesus... steps into the picture. In every photograph, it is evidenced that His love is real, no matter how deep the scars. His joy is present, no matter how indescribable the sorrow seems. 

All because He decided to position himself humbly in this world of people who are proud... 

All because He decided to breath softness and humility into this globe... sweet, still, whispers of eternal hope...

All because He chose to forgive by coming and giving himself.