He calls us each by name
By Brooke
About a year ago, as I was walking through the streets of Kathmandu one afternoon, a friend approached me. He began telling me of a woman he knew who was pregnant but did not have the means to support the baby after it was born. He wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help. We met with the mother and then waited for the birth of the child.
A couple of weeks later, a baby boy was born! The angels in heaven rejoiced, and God looked down upon His creation, and I imagine He said, “It is very good.” However, the sin of the world is great, and the depth of its suffering surrounded this child from his very beginning. My roommate began visiting the mother, who was single and had been making a living by working nights in a dance bar in Kathmandu.
We soon realized that the baby’s situation was grave. For about a month, each time we visited the home we found the baby alone, hidden in the back folds of a musty old couch, crying, hungry and naked. Sometimes his older sister, who was still just a child herself, was there trying to feed him or care for him as best she could. The home felt dark, and everything about its atmosphere was oppressive. The mother was disconnected and seemed unconcerned about the child. We knew we needed to do something fast.
We began making plans to place the child in a children’s home in a city several hours away. The mother agreed and was happy to give the child a chance at a better life. Before the home placement, however, we needed to take the child for a physical examination. As I walked with the mother while she carried her son to the doctor’s office, I asked her, “What is the child’s name?”
Her response was something I will never forget. She said, “He has no name — and even if he did, who would be there to call out to him?”
It struck me in that moment that Satan was doing everything in his power to wipe away this child’s identity — to make him seem so insignificant that he could be lost for hours on end in the back of an old couch and no one would know or care. My heart broke for this precious creation of God! I wanted this mother to know how special her son was and the plans his Creator had for his life!
A few days later we traveled together and met with the child’s new adoptive parents in a small restaurant. The birth mother seemed indifferent as she handed the child over. I watched as eyes of the adoptive mother welled up with tears. She was doing her best to stay calm while we filled out paperwork and talked about legalities. Soon her phone began to ring. Everyone back in the home was calling to ask when the new child was coming home! Was the process complete? Was he fat or thin? What was he like? They couldn’t wait to meet him. Later on, a school bus drove by carrying several of the other children from the home, and as I looked up, I saw little faces pressed up against each window, quickly trying to get a glimpse of the precious child who was about to become part of their family.
Seeing all this affection for the baby made my heart so happy. It was just a glimpse of the change that was happening in the child’s life in that moment. One minute he was living with no identity, and the next minute he was stepping into a community of people who could barely wait for a glimpse of his face and a chance to love him. It was so beautiful! A week later we called the home to check in and see how he was faring. The first thing the parents wanted to tell us was that he was well and that his name was Arian, which means “very holy one.”
Through the entire process, I felt my Heavenly Father revealing to me what it meant to enter into His family. No matter what your background or your circumstances, there is a place for you in God’s Kingdom, where love is never scarce. As we live our lives on earth, complete with all of their rejection and suffering, we are comforted in knowing that we were fearfully and wonderfully made. Our Creator knit us together in our mother’s womb, where He placed inside each of us an unfathomable destiny. And one day soon, each of us will be welcomed home into the loving arms of our Heavenly Father, who calls us each by name.
Brook (pictured with Pawan Magar, her Nepali fiancé) likes to joke that she carries about 13 job titles, as the only North American staff member currently in Nepal. She recently took up quilting by candlelight to occupy evenings in Kathmandu when there is no electricity.