During the month of May many of our activities are centered around family—graduations, Mother’s Day, and weddings.  Gregory Boyle in his book Tattoos on the Heart tells the moving story of a 15-year-old gang member named Rigo.  Rigo was getting ready for a special worship service for incarcerated youth when Boyle asked if Rigo’s father would be coming.  “No, he said, “He’s a heroin addict and has never been in my life.  When I was in fourth grade I was sent home in the middle of the day. When my father asked why, I said, “If I tell you, promise you won’t hit me?”  He said, “I’m your father. Course I’m not gonna hit you.”  So I told him.

Rigo began to cry and started rocking back and forth. Boyle put his arm around him until he calmed down.  When Rigo could finally speak again, he spoke very softly:  “He beat me with a pipe…with…a pipe.”

After Rigo composed himself, Boyle asked about his mom.  Rigo pointed to a small woman, “That’s her over there. There’s no one like her.  I’ve been locked up for a year and a half and she comes to see me every Sunday.  You know how many buses she takes every Sunday to see me?”

Rigo started sobbing again. “Seven buses! She takes…seven…buses. Imagine.”

Boyle concludes the story with an analogy.  God, as revealed in the person of Jesus, loves us like Rigo’s mother loved her son—with commitment, steadfastness, and sacrifice.  We have a God who “takes seven buses, just to arrive at us.” All throughout Jesus’ ministry—his birth, his meals with sinners, his healing of the sick, his death on the cross—He showed us the heart of God, the God who will take a long journey of love to find us.  

This month we thank God for parents like Rigo’s mother, and for Jesus Christ who seeks after us like lost children.