The Kid’s Hope carnival was about to begin and my Kid’s Hope kid was out of town. Bummer, but it happens.

Therefore, I’m an orphaned mentor. Who knew how I’d be put to work. Maybe I’d be helping with the popcorn machine, or the ring toss, or just be a gopher and help where needed.

I didn’t know where I’d be utilized but I was open to whatever.

It was then that I saw them walking across the gym. Two little yayhoos, obviously brothers, walking toward Jennie, our KH director.

Jennie said to them, “you guys, since your mentors were college students who went home, I’m going to pair you up with Shawn.”

They both turned and looked at me.

This was the moment.

The first time with a new Kid’s Hope kid (or, in this case, kids) can be a little stressful. You don’t know if personalities will clash, or if it’ll be a perfect match, or some crazy combination of the two.

I didn’t know what I was going to get. Were they crazy ADD kids that were going to kill me by wearing me out and leave my ragged body behind the jungle gym? Or, maybe they were just plain mean and I was going to have to put up with the Brothers Grimm.

Instead, they both modeled Jesus to me.

They ran right up to me, flashed their big grins and waited. Waited to find out what we were going to do first (the image at the top is them at the end of the night, showing off the tickets they’d won).

Jennie walked up and said, “this is Alonzo and Jordan. You guys are going to be paired up tonight.” And off we went.

We did it all. Duck pond, cake walk, ring toss, bean bag toss, relay race, scooter race, hot dogs, nachos, sno cones.

And they did it all like I was their best friend and they’d known me for a hundred years. Trust me, I’ve been with plenty of kids that aren’t that way. Instead, they instantly accepted me and treated me like I was their third brother.

That’s what Jesus did. He came so all of us could be made right with the Father. None of us are outsiders any more. No one has to stay out in the cold. He’s left the porch light on for everybody.

And deep down, that’s what we wall want. We want to be accepted. Humans are broken but Jesus… his love for us is perfect.

Thanks to Alonzo and Jordan I got to see just how He does things. And it was good.