Ancient Words

This morning was one of the hardest goodbyes for me… There were too many children who we had shared meals with, played games with, made cookies with, and just hung out with all week to hug goodbye. These kids are in the children’s home not for disciplinary reasons but because their own families didn’t have the resources or the talents to take care of them themselves. Arkansas Baptist Children’s Home is an amazing organization which gives these kids a place to call home and people who are their family.

One of the most memorable nights of the week for me was when Steph and I were eating dinner at one of the older boys’ cottages. After we had finished dinner and were just hanging out in their living room, we asked one of the boys if he would sing for us. Jermaine acted shy at first but gradually gave in to our pleas and came back with an instrumental back-up tape to sing us Michael W Smith’s song, “Ancient Words.” His deep voice filled the room and I found myself enveloped in the words of the song. One verse in particular stuck out to me:

Words of life, words of hope
Give us strength, help us cope
In this world, where’er we roam
Ancient words will guide us home

I was sitting on the couch listening to his beautiful bass voice sing these words and the power of the message hit me…standing before me was a young man who doesn’t have what most would consider an earthly home. Yet, he was standing in front of us singing the song and meaning it, the joy in his life shining through his performance and the message: no matter where each one of us is and no matter where each comes from, each has the opportunity to be guided to a home far greater than the one we know here on earth. I don’t think I truly appreciated the measureless value of this statement until I heard it sung from the mouth of an orphan.

Kelly