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One of the most intriguing pages on our new website is the one dedicated to the stories of InFaith Missionaries (https://infaith.org/stories).
Men and women of God called and committed to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ across America; these stories capture the ordinary and extraordinary moments of their service. An InFaith missionary couple shared one such story with my wife, Sandi, and me over the weekend. A family torn by a spiritually abusive church relocated to the area where our missionaries serve. The children were not communicative, nor would they participate in the ministry. Through steady and stable acts of kindness and a ministry of presence and patience, the children eventually felt comfortable enough to speak with our missionaries. After a while--they even played. These stories were told to me tearfully at the thought of what God had done through these missionaries for these children who had endured so much.
I don’t know any of the details about the trauma this family endured but the testimony of these missionaries indicates that it was severe and could have potentially estranged them from the body of Christ. Jesus says in Matthew 18:6 New International Version (NIV) “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”That’s how seriously the Lord takes the care and protection of children. It is profoundly saddening to hear of the struggles children have faced in the church.
But the good news of the gospel heals even the most profound trauma. The blessings of eternity will restore even the most profound sorrow. Listen to how Dostoevsky puts it in Brothers Karamazov: “I believe like a child that suffering will be healed and made up for, that all the humiliating absurdity of human contradictions will vanish like a pitiful mirage, like the despicable fabrication of the impotent and infinitely small...mind of man, that in the world’s finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, of the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they’ve shed; and it will make it not only possible to forgive but to justify what has happened.”
Revelation 21:3-5 tells us this: “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
What a wonderful promise! What a wonderful opportunity each of us has to participate in God’s redemptive work.