Suresh’s father abandoned him and his mother, and never came back to them. It is difficult to be a single mother in the slums because women must work long hours. Suresh was often home alone and with too much time on his hands he began getting into trouble. It wasn’t long before he quit school altogether and began hanging out with all the wrong people.
To give Suresh a better chance in life, his mother sent him to a Christian school, but Suresh left that school and returned home. His mother gave up on him. She was living in an area that was infested with drugs and crime; she already knew the fate of her son.
But God…
I love those words. We never really know what God is up to, do we? And neither did Suresh’s mother. For some reason, Suresh began attending a club using Life on Life curriculum in his slum. In the middle of the unit about God’s care, Suresh began to cry. His teacher approached him to find out what was wrong. Suresh told her he was angry that his father had abandoned him and felt that no one loved him.
But Suresh was having his breakthrough. He was realizing that his father had failed him, but God was the strength in his heart and his portion forever. (Psalm 73:26) Suresh now knows with certainty that God is his true father and that he is deeply loved. “He is not like my father who abandoned me and my mother.”
Scripture:
“Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.”
—Isaiah 59:1
Prayer:
God, forgive me for giving up on those you will never give up on. Help me to remember that there was a time in my life when you could have given up on me, but you didn’t. For you have come to seek and to save the lost, even the lost who don’t seem to be redeemable.
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