It's amazing the difference that feeling loved can make on a person. I look at these pictures and have to remind myself of the reality of what she has gone through over the past few years. Solitary confinement for so long, away from civilization for so long, not feeling the loving touch of family or friends for so long. Yet in the picture she smiles. Tanya smiles not for what has happened in the past, she smiles because of what is happening today. She is unconditionally loved by people, despite the horrible things she has done. She is beginning to understand agape love, not by reading about it but actually visualizing it in the lives of the Rainwaters through their concern for her.
God is using our friendship to teach me about love, to teach me how to love people that noone else will. People like Tanya. Inside her harsh exterior lies a beautiful woman in need of love and concern from others.
I am learning through this experience, that as a Christian, we do not get to choose who we love and when we love, we are simply to love.
Thank you God for teaching me to love.
"When you do it unto the least of these, my brethern, you do it unto me." (Matthew 25:40) People like Tanya are one of "the least of these". The church of today is more than willing to do it unto the "most" of these, reaching out to those who are successful, those who dress the right way, those who act appropriately. I am reminded that Christ died for the least not the most. Afterall, it was the "most" that beat Him and hung him on a cruel cross. I am also amazed at the thought that Christ came to this earth as "a least of these." Born in a filthy stable, laying not in a nice cradle, but a stinky feed trough.
Wake up church, we serve the God of the least.
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