09-26-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
September 26, 2024
Another headline caught my attention. This article was entitled, “Boy Abducted From California in 1951 At Age Six Found Alive On East Coast More Than Seventy Years Later.” Luis Armando Albino was kidnapped in 1951, taken to the East Coast, and placed with a different family. It was an online ancestry test that reconnected Luis with his true family. A niece made the connection, and though his Luis’ died in 2005, she never gave up on finding him. Luis is a retired firefighter and is a veteran of the Vietnam War—US Marines. All those years earlier, Luis’ brother, Roger, was interrogated and considered a suspect in the disappearance. Roger was able to reunite with his brother, though Roger died last month, just six weeks after being reconnected.

I read that story, and I suddenly found things in my life that I described as complicated no longer carrying quite the same weight. Luis was abducted, fed lies about his birth parents, and over time, came to love his new parents… all of it under a heavy shadow of falsehood. And then Luis’ brother, Roger, was accused of possibly being involved. Yet seventy years later, the description of a woman who Roger claimed to have seen turned out to be accurate. Yet there had to be people who wondered and maybe even questioned Roger’s potential involvement. Luis’ family members back in California never gave up hope, and for me, that is quite the testimony of perseverance. How often do we throw in the towel after a couple of tries, muttering the words, “I give up! It is pointless.” In the case of Luis’ family, they kept the hope until science could catch up with the dream of reunification. 

For the truly important happenings in life, O God of Power and Possibility, I pray for hope to continue to push forward, even when others might encourage me to let go of my wishful thinking. Amen.