Paul begins to tell us in Galatians 6:1-5 what loving your neighbor looks like by helping them carry or bear their burdens. First, he tells us how to love someone who is living in sin and how to help those who have been caught in sin (6:1). If you are walking by the Spirit, living by the fruit of the Spirit, then you can help the one caught in sin. Second, Paul tells us how to love someone who is burdened with any kind of burden (6:2-4). When we come alongside someone else who is struggling with love and gentleness, then we fulfill the law of Christ: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Finally, each of us is to take responsibility in bearing our own load (6:5). But what is our load? Simply this: Walk by the Spirit, live by the Spirit, love by the Spirit. (You can listen to the message here.)
“My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth…”
His hands are perfect, this little individual. He uses them to play. You can see him on the floor in the living room pushing his cars around imagining the city that he has built. The cars go “swoosh” as they race along the streets of that city. And all the while, I am watching his hands. Such an incredible thing his hands are. When he was in his mother’s womb, in the secret of that womb, God was ever developing him. At one point, God sewed him together. But his hands — these little hands — are beautiful.
You can see the fingernails. Sure, he’s a boy, and he has dirt under his fingernails. Those nails allow him to scratch his itch. His fingers are used to run through his hair when he feels the need to spiffy up a bit. He taps them on the table sometimes as a joke waiting for his lunch or dinner. As he’s in the car in the backseat he will touch the glass as he is pointing to something that is interesting to him. And all the while, these little hands, wave to people who are passing by.
These little hands are used to grasp his football. He throws it and it bounces everywhere and the next thing you know, he’s at it again. Picking up the ball and throwing it some more. After his bath, he’s checked over by his father. His father looks at the beauty of God’s creation. He looks at him and notices these little hands. And as he is looking at them, he sees the designs of his fingerprints. They are his fingerprints. No one else in the world, out of seven billion people, have his fingerprints. They swirl. They leave smudges. They are his print in the world.
As I look at these little hands, I cannot help but think:
For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You….Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way. (Psalm 139:13-18, 23-24)
These little hands — this little man — are perfect.
The question of a little one, “What means this?” He’s six years old and he’s so inquisitive. He loves to learn. He spells words and tries to find words that rhyme with each other: c-a-t, b-a-t, s-c-a-t, r-a-t, etc. In the spelling of words, he is visualizing what it is that he is spelling. You can see the wheels of his mind turning and churning and burning…ahem. His hunger to learn delights his dad. His dad is a proud dad who seeks to further his son’s knowledge, not just with information, but for life change. He teaches his son about Jesus Christ and reads to him every night and prays with him before going to bed.
His brother, a two-year-old, is just talking away. He sits in his chair and sings. He loves to be with his mom who rocks him every night before he is laid down to bed. He will place his little hands on her face and whisper sweet nothings to her and she just loves it. He’s active, too, but he is a helper. He loves to help around the house. To see a two-year-old clean-up is a rarity it seems, but he picks up his toys. When he eats at the table he will wipe his mess up (sometimes making a bigger mess, but he is praised for his efforts). An amazing thing, when he eats he really doesn’t get anything on his clothes. His parents generally don’t put a bib on him and he’s concerned about being nice and neat.
These two little ones are loved. They are first loved by the Lord. Read what Psalm 127:3-5 says:
Behold, children are a gift of the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth. How blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them; they will not be ashamed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.
Then they are loved by their parents — their new parents. You see, their biological parents are no longer in the picture. Their mother has passed away from leukemia and their father has relinquished all parental rights. However, they are adopted now. They are loved by parents who have never been able to have their own children. The dreams of a name being passed on by a Dad to his sons has become a reality. Now comes the stewardship, the responsibility of training them in the way that they should go (Proverbs 22:6). It is their parents who are responsible to see that they are taken care of, that they are provided for, and that they are nurtured and brought up in the admonition of the Lord.
Thanks be to God! Praise His holy name! As His children — adopted by Him in order that we might be holy and blameless — we are free to live, to love, and to laugh. We are free to be a family who fellowships with the Father. We are free to show others the same love; after all, the Law has been reduced to this one command, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.” The children that you adopt will be the closest of neighbors to you. Love them; cherish them; prize them. They are gifts from the Lord!
D.J. Gorena 