See what great love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1)
He was a twelve-year-old orphan who had walked eighty-five miles from San Pedro Sula to La Ceiba. The boy found his way to our Barrio Ingles Church where the pastor discovered him one morning sleeping on a pew. There was a small building adjacent to the church, and after being equipped with a cot and a small cookstove, it became Oscar’s home for the next several weeks.
We knew little about the boy, only that his mother had died. But the congregation welcomed him and became his family, allowing him to experience the love of the Father through them. It wasn’t long before he made the decision to receive Christ as his Savior.
The news stunned us all. Oscar had been swimming with some of the neighborhood kids at the river and drowned. His body lay in the morgue for twenty-four hours as a bulletin went out on Honduran television asking for family members. No one came forward. Normally, a street kid like Oscar would have no funeral, no coffin—just placed in a common grave and forgotten. But Oscar wasn’t forgotten. His church family lavished love on his body as it was retrieved from the morgue, dressed, placed in a simple wooden coffin and lowered into a grave, while a loving heavenly Father welcomed him home.
Find someone who needs to know the love of the Father.
Marcy Burke enjoys living in Alabama and being a retired pastor’s wife, former missionary, and worship leader. She finds delight in playing the piano and taking long walks with her husband, Larry.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission. Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
