At one point, who I thought were a good neighbor's grandchildren just showed up in my house. We shared leftover cake and bbq with the kids. One of them passed around her 3-month old brother (so cute) while they ate and laughed. I remember a moment, while standing there holding the baby and looking around my kitchen full of friends and kids, when I thought, "this is what community is all about." We sat around and chatted. At some point the other 3-month-old twin appeared. Maybe I was distracted by the double-cuteness, but somewhere in the mix, a child that had been playing with my phone (after being asked to please stop), made a decision that would ruin an otherwise beautiful day. The kids went back home as we grownups continued hanging out into the night. I was having a great time still.
A few hours later, after giving someone a ride home, I got back and discovered I didn't have my phone on me. That's when the search began. Hours later, my phone was still nowhere to be found, and all I could remember was that particular girl who would not put my phone down. I didn't want to believe that she would steal from me, despite the strong possibility. I spend the next 12 hours frustrated, not sleeping, hoping for a resolution that didn't involve a child maliciously stealing from me.
In the end, my neighbor was able to help me track down the phone. Unfortunately, it was a malicious act. The children lied to our faces as we showed up to retrieve what was mine. They acted like nothing was wrong. The mother said her son just found it on the sidewalk outside. I wanted to sarcastically snap back, "yeah, I thought I set it down out here 10 miles from where I live..." I discovered that everything was wiped out on my phone. I spent the next few hours feeling every emotion from raw anger to hurt to sadness to confusion. I am so angry that this sort of thing happens when we were trying to be supportive and helpful to these kids. They still stole and lied and had no intention of returning my phone had we not gone to great lengths to retrieve what was rightfully mine.
Here's where the grace comes in. These are children. These are lost children who have no structure in their lives. They have no good examples to look up to. They have no support. They have no proper mentor or anyone to really look up to. So, I feel torn. I want to be angry, and I do fully intend to not allow them on my property again. However, I don't want to never be there if children do need me as a role model. I feel like, even if they don't understand it, I should have grace in this situation. What the kids did was wrong, they do need to know this. They are lucky I didn't have the cops show up at the door with me.
I guess the understanding of grace that I have gotten from all of this is that I am no better than a naive child who steals and lies. I turn my back on God over and over. I break His heart as much as these fallen children broke my heart. It hurts Him to see me make bad decisions as much as it hurts me to know that the future of those cute 3-month-old twins is going to be rough and that they will most likely steal and lie too. He has grace though. He loves me despite my malicious behavior. He doesn't kick me out and tell me to stay off his property. He doesn't bring armed friends to my door demanding back what is rightfully His. He could, but He doesn't. I guess that is grace. Not that I should blindly sit by and let people take advantage of me, but there is room for grace.
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