Haiti, March 3-10, 2012 | Blog 3: Sunrises, Roosters, & the Kingdom of God.

This morning I woke up to the sound of roosters crowing audaciously. Erika thinks they sound like they’re yelling, “Oh my God,” but I really don’t see that. But hey, there’s always room for personal interpretation. And the moral of the story is that roosters crow a lot more than one time, unless if there are thousands of roosters within earshot of our house.

It was a beautiful sunrise, though. Well worth the rude awakening.

Things got started up this morning with a delicious breakfast of eggs and toast, along with Haitian coffee. Then we were off to Wings of Refuge (WOR), the children’s home run by the church we’re staying with.

I think this was one of those times when the words of Jesus came to life for me. Jesus taught us that we must become like children if we ever hope to enter the Kingdom of God. And I must say, the children at WOR were a striking image of the Kingdom of God on earth. After a brief introduction, they were rushing over and hugging us, sharing their snack with us and making us feel like we’d known them for much longer than 5 minutes.

When I say that the children at WOR represent the Kingdom of God, I don’t mean to say that they have attained some sort of state of perfection or anything like that. After all, the Kingdom of God is made up of imperfect people redeemed by the blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Rather, I mean that the children exemplified the community of love that should accompany any body of believers. The kids really loved each other, and I believe they loved us too; with such a pure love that ulterior motives were completely out of the question. Not even a consideration, really.

I just love how refreshing kids are. They give you their love and attention, and all they ask for is the same in return. True love never feels like a transaction; it’s a joy through and through.

I think that’s what the Church should be like. A gathering of people devoted to Love Himself, finding their greatest joy in glorifying Him by loving Him with all they are, and as an outpouring of that love, putting their neighbor before themselves. People should feel refreshed when they interact with believers in Christ. I think it’s time we started acting more like kids. I know I need to.

One final thought: Jesus told us that when we meet the needs of the “least of these,” we are doing it to Him. To borrow the words of a friend, “Today I see the Divine in everyone I meet.”

- Chris Rowekamp