Love in a Pint-Sized Package

Having a Silverado crash into the side of my mini van taught me a couple of very important things. One day, when I have more time and energy, I am going to share them.

The most important thing I learned, though, was that compassion is a verb. Sure, the dictionary calls it a noun, but, like love, it demands action and thrives off of service. True compassion stems from a deep wealth of emotion and spills out into deeds. I was on the receiving end of that several times this week and the warmth of it buoyed me up.

When it comes to compassion, the mere act of feeling it means nothing. So often, though, I have found myself feeling rather than doing. I have thought that someone else would or could or should do what must be done, and so, I have done nothing.

This week, I was also on the receiving end of that. It hurt. I'll just leave that at that.

The good thing about hurt is that we learn from it, and I have learned that waiting for others to do what I can leaves a cold dark void called apathy. To me, apathy is the opposite of compassion, and I have decided that compassion without action must be that.

This morning, I received an email about a little boy that I have advocated for several times. You may know him as Wesley or Jude or Jesse.  I wasn't feeling all that great when I got the email, and I thought I would just wait until Wednesday to come up with a post about him. I spend a lot of time writing my Will You Wednesday posts, and I didn't want to take the time to do that on Saturday. Plus, Jesse is so sweet and cute and funny, I was sure that someone elses post would bring his family to him.

It occurred to me, though, that if my heart really hurts for this child, if I truly care about him not just as an orphan but as a little boy who smiles and laughs and cries and loves, than what I write about him will not matter nearly as much as the fact that I am writing it.


Jesse, you see, is a pint-sized package of love, and he is waiting for someone he can give that love to.

Maybe, he is waiting for you.

You can read all about Jesse here.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.