Insignificant?

As I walked to meet Shannon and Daniel yesterday to go to the block party, I walked the sidewalk where a man was murdered just days ago. I turned down Elkhart St and saw a pile of stuffed animals in memory of the father who is now gone. I saw people around their house, and couldn't help but think of them all and how this all affects them. What I thought mostly of was the way life has just gone on. Within hours of the murder, it was cleaned up and hardly anyone even knows about it. It didn't even make the news, I had to search and search to find anything written about it. Is the life of a father that insignificant? According to many, the lives of most people around us here in Kensington are in fact that, insignificant.

I want you to think along with me about this..

This is the back of one of the t-shirts given away to the kids at the block party yesterday. I couldn't help but think of the murdered man. He too was a child of God, created for a purpose. I have no idea if he was walking on that path created for him, but I know God had a plan for his life. I think of his kids, now permanently affected by the fact that their father was murdered, how will that affect their life path? I think also of the murderer, a teen boy, also a child of God, obviously not following God's will for his life. Are they all insignificant? Are they just kids from the ghetto, who don't matter because they have no hope? I don't think so, I don't think God thinks that either.

Look at these faces. Some I know, some I don't know. Just faces in the crowd at the block party yesterday. All ages of children, all different stories. Are their lives insignificant because they are growing up here? I don't think so.

Are these children any different than yours? Are they less important? Less beautiful? Less valubale to society? Less able to do good? Less significant? We would all answer no (I hope), however the world seems to give the answer of yes.

What is God's answer? Here is God's answer...

That's my answer too. I pray each and every day I can help the children I come into contact with do just that...grow God's way and fulfill God's purpose for their life.