Jesus Loves Me

In February, Pure & Faultless posted the following photo on Facebook:

Shortly after we posted it, a friend raised her objection to the photo:  it depicts the somewhat sad looking, scarred face of a child who may, in fact, not feel all that loved by Jesus or anyone else, based on his life circumstances.  How could a God who claims to love him leave him in the situation he faces?

I read her text as I raced off to the train, and I had to agree.  As I run from my posh office to the cozy train on my way to my lavish home, I pass by multiple homeless people . . . who Jesus loves as much as He loves me.  How is that fair?  How dare we attempt to communicate that Jesus loves them when we have so much and they?  So little.

In that same moment, though, I had this thought:  it’s a call to action.  As much as that photo is declaring a truth set forth in scripture, it’s calling those of us with more to care for those with less.  It’s begging the privileged to care for the poor.  Declaring that “Jesus loves him” may be both Biblical truth and a call for us to go be Jesus to him.  Not someday, but this day.

The Bible is very clear about putting our faith into action and equally clear about the consequences of not doing so.  See, e.g., Matthew 25 and the book of James.  There are many days when I worry that believers have lost their way in this regard.  And then I open my eyes to the ways that so many of us are working hard to serve the one in front of us.  I see nonprofits springing up around the world, and I rejoice at the way Jesus is mobilizing His people.

Yes, I realize that there are many people – who Jesus loves – who may never experience the flesh on love of Jesus through one of His believers.  Perhaps even most people never will.  But that tough-to-swallow-fact will not keep me from meeting the needs in front of me.  “For religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is caring for people.”

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one”  . . . for . . . “each one of them is Jesus in disguise.”  Mother Teresa