Compassion

I have a child in my community who is just so precious. She's 4 with an attitude and on many occasions I've sworn she's one of my own -- even looks like one of my kids. Her great-grandmother is raising her (she's in her late 60s, it's been a full life) as her mother is addicted to drugs and her father sexually abused her. However, the great-grandmother doesn't have custody of her because the little girl, thinking it would be a fun experiment, lied to the judge. I know she lied because she came out and announced at would have been the final custody hearing, "Grandma, I lied and everyone believed me!" She was so proud of herself, but now grandma continues to seek custody. The thing is, mother is coming back for her in the next few weeks and there's nothing grandma can do about it. The little girl has been sick for awhile and today went to the doctor. They believe she has syphillis which can be gotten only through sex or in the mother's birth canal. I love this little girl and her grandmother and I have so much compassion on her for the life she has already led. As you can guess, believing in a loving God is awfully hard for this 4 year old but she's trying. She wants to believe. But she's asking questions most of us don't even attempt to ask until we're in our teens or 20s -- questions like: where is God when bad things happen? and believing that there is no God because she has suffered so many atrocities. To her and her grandmother all I can reply is that God is holding them and loving them and crying great big tears for them. Because I ask the same questions in the face of such sadness. But believing that I am God's hands and feet, I also extend God's love to this little one and pray for her mother and father, that this sickness can end. And I cry for her too. That is, after all, what compassion is -- with passion.