Compassion

By Stacey Yarbrough Missoula, USA

The other day I was thinking of an old friend of mine from when I lived in Alaska. She was one of those influential people in my life when I came to know Christ as a young teen, bigger than life, beautiful and flamboyant.

I was born in Alaska and as a rule Alaskan women are very, shall we say, ‘practical’ about matters concerning our clothing. When temperatures often reach -20° F you tend to rethink feminine clothing, like dresses! More often than not woollen trousers and thick coats filled with goose down are as trendy as we get. Not so with dear Diane. She wore brightly coloured dresses that were the latest fashion, and accented everything with colourful jewellery. Against the backdrop of white snow, she was a ray of sunshine that brightened everyone’s day.

Diane captured the attention of a very handsome young man, Daniel Boone (yes, that’s really his name). They were married, and after a while left Alaska.

We had been living in Mexico for about six years when my brother-in-law crossed paths with Dan and Diane in Cuernavaca, Mexico of all places! It was such a delight to see them again and have the privilege of labouring together in Christ for a couple of years until they were off to the African continent.
Diane had not changed a bit – still as beautiful and effervescent as ever. It was not until Dan and Diane left Mexico that our friend, Alfonso, the pastor they were working with in Cuernavaca, told us the most touching story about dear, beautiful Diane.

The challenge

On one occasion Diane’s son from a previous marriage came to visit her. Apparently Dan was away. Her son was struggling with coming to faith in Christ and as a mother would do, Diane tried to encourage him to believe. One day whilst touring in downtown Cuernavaca, the young man saw a crippled indigent, dragging his limp lifeless legs through the streets, begging for whatever someone would throw his way. This twenty-something young man suddenly turned to his mum and said, ‘Prove it! If this God is everything you say He is, prove it and take that cripple home with you!’

As Alfonso was telling us this story, I knew what had to be coming next. Diane would never take a challenge like that lightly. Of course, she immediately gathered up that lame man, put him in her car and took him to her house. (I’ve forgotten his actual name, but we will call him Jorge.)

Alfonso described the man to us very graphically. He was in a horrible condition from a lack of care and living in his own filth for so many years. He had layers of stench, dirt, faeces and filth on his body, huge boils in his scalp and hair. Diane brought him home and bathed him straight away. She scrubbed and scrubbed on his dirty body until she used up an entire bar of soap. When Jorge was finally out of the shower and dressed in fresh new clothes, Diane heard him mumble his first words ‘estoy limpio’ – I’m clean. (Eventually, when Jorge was able to bathe on his own they couldn’t figure why he’d spend such a long time in the shower. It turns out that he thought he had to use an entire bar of soap every time he bathed. Unable to explain that it wasn’t necessary, they gave up and bought him the little hotel-sized soaps.)

No turning back

When Dan returned to find a strange man in his home and heard what Diane had done, he was furious with worry thinking she had put herself in potential danger! But, there was no going back for Diane. Jorge was not going back to the street and Diane’s son was going to see that the love of God was real. It was real in her heart and could be real for him too. Diane’s son left to go back home and I can’t say if he ever came to faith in Christ or not, but Jorge stayed on with Dan and Diane.

Alfonso explained that Jorge’s progress was slow in all areas. He ate like an animal – eating directly off his plate or with his hands. Dan would patiently set him at the dining table and teach him how to use a fork, knife and spoon.
After observing him they began to suspect that Jorge wasn’t really crippled in his legs. There seemed to be strength and movement there, so … they began to get under his arms, get Jorge up on his two legs, and slowly try to exercise and walk with him. Wouldn’t you know it! After a while, Jorge was walking again! After another while longer, he began talking a bit and interacting with others.

The day came when Dan and Diane moved on and Alfonso took Jorge into his home when they left. He had made a lot of progress, but was still mentally unable to live on his own and no one was willing to risk him living on the street again. Alfonso says that Jorge’s main preoccupation now-a-days has been keeping things clean – ever so meticulously, even down to picking up a single grain of rice that has spilled on the ground.

It’s easy to think of mercy, compassion and justice just in terms of giving money for those in marginalised circumstances. We can drop a few coins in an offering bucket and feel like we’ve completed our obligation to mercy. However, deep down as believers we know it encompasses so much more than that. Perhaps it happened, but I know of no instance recorded in the Bible where Jesus gave money to the poor. But boy, could he love.

Love restores dignity

Every step he took, every move he made, every word spoken was restoring the dignity we squandered in the garden when we were created in God’s image. No matter what our circumstance is, each one of us is important to God and Jesus let us know it. There was no one he didn’t take time for, from a quintuple divorcee to the sharpest religious and intellectual minds of his day. On his way to Jerusalem, to unimaginable suffering, he stopped to embrace little children and let everyone know they were the stuff of his kingdom.

I’ll confess, one of my most favourite days of the year is the day of prayer and offering at the Together on a Mission gathering in Brighton, UK. It is such a privilege to gather with people from the nations, and ecstatically give finances to the glory of God. I’m not sure if we met our expectations in financial giving this year as we have in years past, but this I do know with certainty: we serve a God who delights in taking a little and making it … a lot!

All the riches of the kingdom of heaven are at our disposal – we lack nothing because of Christ. If times are economically challenging where you live, you have God’s love to give. You have the power of His Spirit to impart. Because of His commitment to us you have the faith and boldness to approach anyone to share it with!