March 3, 2021
When a Trailer Park Kid Freezes to Death.
*His funeral was just a few days ago…
Growing up, I was taught to see trailer parks as the epicenter of trash. While I don’t remember exactly who taught me such a thing, I know that I wasn’t born with such an idea…therefore…I was taught…right? I’m sure that I’m not the only one who grew up in such a way…looking down on those who we assume are beneath us. Capitalism has a way of destroying our children…it teaches them that a trailer is not the home of intelligence or success. Thankfully, the heart of the individual can be healed…we can learn to love…I did…but the souls of societies take much longer. There has to be a revelation. There has to be an exorcism. There has to be something much more than politeness. There has to be genuine fully developed love…for the neighbor and the self. Without such a development, we will continue to mistake divisions of class as division of souls. I wonder what people thought about that boy in Houston before he died? I wonder how many people were thinking about the folks in his trailer park before he died? I wonder what the difference would have been for him if he had lived somewhere else? I wonder…perhaps in our wonderings arise our convictions. In fact…didn’t Jesus say something about living in the trailer without heat?
She was trying as hard as she could. The trailer just didn’t seem to be enough. Yet…there was nowhere else to go. The temperature kept on dropping. How can you prepare for something like this? She quickly kept gathering clothes. She got all of the blankets that she could. The pile kept growing on top of the kids. How can you know when enough is enough? If you don’t know…if you have no experience…you can’t…you just do the best you can to survive. When she laid them down…she put her older son right next to his baby brother…thinking they would keep each other warm. Under the pile of blankets, they fell asleep. Through the night…the blankets proved insufficient. When she went to wake them…11-year-old Christian Pineda (Pavon) was dead…a victim of hypothermia. In wealthier parts of town, people were treating the arctic weather as a vacation. In the trailer park, it proved to be a death sentence. Does anyone care? Make no mistake…Pineda is dead because we didn’t give him any heat. We were to worried about our own.
Jesus lives in the places that we loathe. Jesus dies in the places that we loathe. Jesus saves in the places that we loath. Jesus…
Do you hear it?
The trailer park is calling.
Amen.
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