Justice and the Character and Nature of God (Week Five)

Scott Freeman, who has pioneered and led the first Children at Risk Schools in Costa Rica together with his wife Leslie, taught us on the topic of Justice and the Character and Nature of God. He started the week by having us draw how we see God. People were incredibly creative in their drawings, depicting Him in a variety of different ways, including music, footprints in the sand, an open door and an intricate tree. In my picture I drew God as big and powerful, radiating light, but also gentle and loving, with His arms around me, bending down to kiss the top of my head.  After we’d each shared about our picture, Scott concluded that what we believe about God defines our lives. His statement made perfect sense. As followers of Christ we obviously believe there is a God, so logically what we believe about Him shapes our lives. It characterizes who we are. Scott went on to say: “This is what you know in your heads, and maybe some of you may know in your hearts, but for the rest of your lives you will try to reconcile your heart with your head”.

I’m not sure, but I think Scott was speaking in reference to the age-old question of the discrepancy between the state of the world and the just and compassionate God of the Scriptures (certainly a very relevant question for anyone working with at-risk children). Janna, our first speaker, encouraged us to ask questions, and not just in class, but in general, to be willing to wrestle with God about the difficult ones. It’s how we learn, by first admitting we don’t know. Even though this side of eternity we may have more questions than answers, we can choose to keep asking, to chew on the difficult ones, and to draw our hope from knowing who God is and what He is like.

We had our classes together with the discipleship training school and Scott had us do a couple of activities outside the classroom. On Tuesday morning we went to the Salvation Army in central San Jose, where part of the group stayed to sort out hundreds of donated shoes into pairs, except apparently for the most part the original pair was nowhere to be found, so the task was to find a left and a right shoe similar enough to be put together. I guess a pair of mismatching shoes is better than no shoes at all, but just think if that’s what you had to wear for example for a job interview, or as someone pointed out, you were a little child and those were the only pair you could wear for school.  Surely you’d hope the people around you had the grace to see past your shoes.

While some of the students worked on the mountain of shoes, the rest of us went to buy bread to give to the homeless. Finding people living in the streets was not hard. Many of them actually found us. Since I don’t speak Spanish, I wasn’t quite sure how to reach out to them, so I decided to at least sit down on the pavement so as not to be towering above the people we were supposed to be reaching out to. At one point, Robbie, who is one of our staff, motioned me to come over and asked if I’d like her to interpret for me, which I thought was very considerate of her. So I sat down with her and Hannah and the ladies they were having a conversation with, and both Hannah and Robbie interpreted for us.  

I know it would be so much more ideal to build long-term relationships and to at least be able to offer alternatives to living on the street. But then, I also know anything I do in Costa Rica can only be short-term, and I don’t think I should allow that to stop me from doing anything at all, especially if a window of opportunity opens up right before my eyes.  So I followed the example of my Lord and Saviour, who looked at the overlooked, touched (literally!) the “untouchable” (Mark 1:41) and fellowshipped with the despised. During His walk on earth He did not aim to climb higher but to reach lower, and I believe that is where we still find Him, with the poor and the overlooked (Isaiah 57:15).

The following day, Wednesday, we had an hour of quiet time in a huge park, Parque del este. Afterwards, we met up again to share what we felt some of the different aspects of nature had conveyed to us about God’s character.  Thinking back on the morning, I was reminded of a promotional video clip for a book called One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are by Ann Voskamp (I’ve bought a copy, but haven’t read it yet). If you’d like to take a look at the clip, here’s a youtube link.   

I hope you have a good week! Blessed to be able to share my journey with you!