On a bright Saturday in December, children from 15 different nations gathered in a small room in Beirut for a Christmas party. Jingle bells in Arabic played in the background and the children showed up in their very best – dresses, bows, and bright colors.
Through the continuous gifts of a faithful partner organization, LSESD has been able to provide “to those who have nothing prepared” by way of Christmas meals and gifts.
Our 7-year-old daughter quickly announced that she wanted to help children to go to school and started to think through ways she could raise money.
Instead of being overcome by despair, we realized that, in the same way Christ entered the darkness of our fallen world as “the light of men”, we need to be the light within the tunnel for those around us for “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).
At the Christmas event, I met a 9 or 10-year-old child who told me, “Jesus healed me!” His mom explained that when they came to Lebanon her child could hardly walk without leg braces. He had been suffering for some time and was scheduled for a hip replacement! When the mother shared her concern about the surgery with the church, the sisters and brothers prayed over the child. Soon after, the mother and child went to the surgeon for a pre-surgery appointment where, to their amazement, they were informed that the bone was healing and that there was no need for surgery. Today, the boy walks normally and without any braces. God is good!
After having meditated on and journeyed through the Lord’s prayer for the past seven months, the concluding words of the Lord’s Prayer remind us that it all starts and ends with God’s glory and His Sovereignty. And it is when God stops being the center of our lives that things start to fall apart.
