I honestly don't know his name. I heard people call him John, J, Jase, and Chase. I just called him my bud, so that is what i will do from now on.
We were in Chicago on a Mission Trip. I was an adult leader for the week with the High Schoolers from Brentwood Baptist. It was a great week, but i am going to focus on one afternoon for right now. It was our last day of service in Chicago. Our assignment that day was to run a kids camp. By this time we already heard from the other groups about some of the children we would have. I was excited because i love playing with little kids. Kids make me smile because of their innocence and love. We get there and kids start showing up. Instantly the youth start hugging on them and loving on them. They know their names in no time and are playing games. Bud comes by and then leaves for whatever reason. You can tell within the first 2 seconds of meeting him that he is much slower than the other children. So the day goes on and we play with the other kids. I think they are cool and the youth think they are great.
Finally Bud comes back. We are about to have our bible story and snack time there in the grass of Garfield Park. He sits right in the middle of the group. He squirms and moves a lot more than the others because of the way he is, and we all know it and just let him be. His peers know he is different too. Some people who are slow are too slow to know it. They won't know when they are being picked on, it will be more of a game to them. Bud is not one of those. He is definately slow, but he knows when the others are being mean to him. It doesn't take 30 seconds of him being there in the middle before it begins. They are laughing at him, poking him, messing with his clothes and his reactions only add to their laughter. I get on to a couple of them instantly, hoping they will let it go. I caused only a temporary pause in their behavior. They kept right back with it. I even moved some of them away and it wouldn't stop. I decided to sit in the middle with bud and he wanted to sit on my lap. They tried to start up again and my face let them know that it wouldn't be a smart thing for them to do. I spent the next 30 minutes with him going where he wanted to go, doing what he wanted to do. Occasionally they would laugh at something but thankfully he couldn't hear or wasn't paying attention, even though i heard it every time.
Here's the point: I know that kids will be kids and that they aren't going to understand everything and are going to be mean. You could see that one or two of the group weren't as gung ho on giving him a hard time and knew that i was right in wanting them to stop. I am not writing about them. I am writing about those who will never do anything genuine for Bud. I don't want to see those kids ever again. Now everyone else there would probably tell you they can't wait to see them again next year and that is fine, i'm glad that they have love for those children. But i hated what i saw in them. There was no sweet innocent child there. There wasn't unconditional love. The way they acted went beyond kids being kids. It wasn't a behavioral problem, it was something deeper inside of them. They didn't look guilty when i told them to stop, they were merely perturbed that i was slowing them down. They will never be his friends. They will never stand up for him. In fact, others will stand up to them for Bud. They went beyond thinking his behavior was funny to being evil towards him.
I think this shows that although i want to be able to have the perfect love that is spoken about in scripture, i won't be able to grasp it here on earth. It should be easier to find in kids. Kids can't hurt you the way a peer can. I should be able to love all of the kids equally. Obviously we have favorites, but that doesn't mean we don't love our nonfavorites. But now i find a gap in that love i desire to have, and it just outs me more in awe of the unconditional love that christ has for us.
