Embraced

To say that Tash had a short temper would be a huge understatement. He once put another student into the hospital with a busted face and few broken ribs for taking a potato chip from him. Tash may have been 5 foot 3, but he walked the halls as if he were 7 feet tall, and the rest of the student body saw him that way too. His presence in any classroom was as the alpha male, and Tash didn’t even have to say a word. When he did speak, it wasn’t much but still carried the same weight as his punch. So when I showed clips from the film The War during class one day, I wasn’t prepared for what happened. In the film there is a sentimental moment between a young boy and his father where they embrace in tears and the father tells his son, “I love you.” The class was silent as they answered questions on their viewing guide, except for one voice which said, “I’d give anything for that.” We didn’t need to look up to know who said it; we all knew whose deep and quiet voice it belonged to—Tash. One student was brave enough to ask Tash what he meant. “I’d give anything for my father to hold me like that. I’d give anything to hear my father tell me he loves me the way he just told his son.” As his teacher I could only imagine what pain Tash had been through to encourage his aggressive behavior and what would prompt him to say that.

The cry of Tash's heart spoke volumes to me and my entire classroom. We all long for the assurance of knowing we are loved and when things are missing from our lives, be it a father, a career, a loved one or whatever we may cling to, we feel lost. That is, until we hear the cry of Jesus' heart and realize that His heart longs for us greater even than Tash longs for his father, and we hear Him call us gently to follow him (v. 19). He proved this love when He died for my sins, your sins, and Tash's sins. We have assurance in a Father who will embrace us and tell us, "I love you" over and over again—no matter what our past holds.