Repaid

"You have never really lived until you have done something for someone who can never repay you."  I saw this on Facebook about a week or so ago and didn't give it much thought at the time.  I usually don't even read all the stuff I see like this on Facebook, but this one stuck with me and my mind kept going back to it over and over again.

There are lots of reasons we do things for others and yes some of those reasons can definitely be genuine and honorable.  They can also be for selfish reasons as well if we're really honest about it deep down inside or maybe y'all just aren't as prideful as I am.  However, when we do something for someone who can never repay us it takes on a whole different meaning to both the giver and the receiver.

If I don't brush her hair, who is going to?  If I don't wash her face each morning after my people have left for work and school, who is going to?  Even more critical are her feedings, her medicines, her breathing treatments and her oxygen...who will do all those life sustaining things for her if I don't?  I sit by her side and uncurl each little finger so that I can clip her fingernails when they get too long.  I stretch her each and every day to try and fight against the contractures that are taking over her body.  

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

God prepared me in advance to care for this little girl.  He has prepared me all my life to mother these boys and their sweet sister.    I am in no way trying to bring attention to myself or what I am doing.  I have been called to be a servant.  Christ showed us what the life of a servant looks like in His life on this earth.  I am called to serve; and each act of service I do for her is overflowing with more love than there are words for.

We have also been on the receiving end of such things. There are folks we will never be able to repay for the help and kindness they have shown us.  They continue to give anyway...that is a servant's heart, it is born from a place of selflessness.  God is very specific in the Bible that we are to place others above ourselves.  In a world that focuses on self, we are called to do for others.

Please allow me to share two more verses that I took away from Sunday's message at church...

1 Corinthians 4:2 "Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful."

I Corinthians 15:58 "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm.  Let nothing move you.  Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

So on the hard days, and they are hard and it hurts deep, I have a promise that my labor in the Lord is not in vain.  In reality, it's true that Sophie Kate can never repay me or her daddy for what we do for her every single day, but we know different.  We are repaid every day in smiles and in eye gazes and in hand holding.  We are repaid in seeing her brothers do for her and for others.  We are repaid in living this life with this little girl and these three boys.
  
We have been given a trust, Lord may we always strive to be found faithful.