We met these two sweet little girls yesterday. Where you ask? (thanks for asking) We met them in this very unique place...on top right in the middle of a HUGE trash dumpster digging for food. They were finding treasures in the middle of Honduran trash. To hungry bellies some things in there I'm sure looked like gold.
We drove past on our way to Santa Ana and Karen said, "did you see those two little girls in the trash dumpster?" I didn't but knew we had to go back. So we turned around and pulled up to them and we had a box of cookies in our car and gave it to them, asked them their name, and talked for a second and then we watched them walk to the back of the trash dumpster and hide so they could eat their cookies without someone taking them from them.
You know what I'll confess that sometimes you "get used to it" here. You are around the poverty and the hunger every single day. You see children who are dirty and naked and barefoot and it sometimes becomes all too familiar. It's sort of like driving to your house day after day after day. When you first paint your house you're aware of the color and it sticks out, but after a few days or weeks maybe a month when you drive into your driveway each day, the color has become familiar and you don't even notice it anymore. Sometimes it's like that here...sometimes these precious people become the surroundings and not the focal point and you fight hard for that not to be the case.
Then there are those moments however when no matter how familiar things have become get stuck in you somewhere. I call them my "clarifying moments." Those moments when in an instant all that matters becomes really clear. Seeing those two little girls sitting on the top of all that trash with their little heads peeking over the top was one of those pull over to the side of the road to catch your heart and your breath, put your head in your hands and weep moments. It certainly made all that mattered get really clear.
Humbled and reminded me of our powerlessness. I would have given anything to snap my fingers and give those little girls food for the rest of their lives so 5 and 8 year old little girls would not have to go searching through trash to find something to fill their tummies. Yet I was reminded that I am so small and my sandwich chips and a drink would only last for today and they were gonna need God to show up again tomorrow. I suppose that's what I learned in the moment. I will offer anything and everything that I have to these people and it still won't be nearly enough. They need a God who is FAR bigger than I am.
All of me will never be enough. Suppose it's good sometimes to be reminded how utterly helpless we are without Him. Help them Father in the ways only You can and show up for Maria and Angelica today Lord in ways beyond anything they could imagine. May your banquet table be filled with special treats for those who never got to feast while walking this planet. We'll wait for a very long time at the end of the line to watch their tummies and their souls get full!
1 comment:
I agree with all you said. It is hard to see the paint become dull and no different from yesterday. But know that God used YOU and KAREN that day. He chose you two and no one else to be in that moment at that time. You gave food to those girls, and more importantly, you gave love and compassion to them. Keep loving...Galatians 6:10
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