Sophi's Drawing

Sophi drew a picture a few weeks ago at school. Her art teacher brought it to our attention. When Vicki told me about it over the phone it grabbed my heart. I choked up and added to the tears I’ve shed over the past four weeks. I’ve shed tears of grief, pain, fear, love, hope and joy. Most of them were a mix. These were tears of gratitude and humility. Here’s her picture.

Sophi's Haitian Account... from Jeff Rogers on Vimeo.

It grips my heart that my 4 ½ year old daughter understands what is going on in Haiti enough to be able to draw such a picture as this. I’m surprised by the amount of detail in her narration of what is happening. By now, I’ve heard her tell it over and over. The cracked and broken house in pieces, the boy with the boo boo on his arm, the baby with the boo boo on her head, crying… That these are Tio Mano’s friends (our friend “uncle” Romano to them, who lost family in the quake).

But it’s the “Daddy” in the story that really touches me… that this amazing little girl has put together that her Daddy’s distractedness at home is rooted in his hope and care for his friends in Haiti, that this is true of her Mommy too. I look at this picture and realize that she has drawn me responding to what is happening in Haiti.

But Sophi isn’t just drawing me. She’s drawing her mother. She’s drawing the guy who stayed up 4 days straight building www.gohelphaiti.org so that we could communicate the need and G.O.’s response to the world, she’s drawing my friend who became uncomfortably close to death in service to Haiti (he’s recovered now, Thank you Lord), she’s drawing everyone in our office whose been answering calls and emails to ramp up our relief efforts, she’s drawing those on the field taking email requests, coordinating relief drops and loading planes, she’s drawing pilots flying planes, she’s drawing owners donating planes and fuel, she’s drawing every one of you that has contributed and continues to contribute to G.O.’s Haiti effort.

But really she’s drawing the Jesus in each and everyone of us. That’s really what she’s captured whether she knows it or not and whether we know it or not. We’re not heroes. We’re not acting out of duty. We’re acting out of faith and love because God has moved our hearts not toward pity or charity but compassion, commitment, long-suffering and hope. We are bent on being rescuers because we have ourselves been rescued. Our resources for response are rooted in our understanding of Jesus as our rescuer. Even in the face of such a tragedy we have been graced with sober mindedness. I think this is due to the fact that we serve and worship a God that raises the dead to life. With this as a resource what is there really to fear or worry about? If resurrection is the final word than every thing we do towards restoration of life and hope is eternally valid.

So as we look at Sophi’s picture we can see ourselves but it is my hope that we see Jesus first and foremost and that we thank him for the gift of being able to respond as we have and that we ask that he make us more like him than we were before. And while we’re on that journey together I ask that we keep doing what we’ve been doing, that we give to the people of Haiti, that we serve our neighbors there, that we sacrifice of ourselves on there behalf. In the mean time I’ll make sure that Sophi keeps drawing… each of us.

Thanks for your work with us thus far. We’ve got so much further to go.

Grace and Peace,

Jeff