The word of the week is BEAUTY. Beauty in all of its forms. I was reading the book Captivating by Stasi Eldridge and she describes beauty as “a quality of the soul that expresses itself in the visible world. You can see it, you can touch it, you are drawn to it. Beauty illuminates.
This land is illuminated with beauty. The sky, hills, dirt roads, sunrises and sunsets, the milky way in the starry night.
But the most prominent piece of beauty i’ve been drawn to so far is in the people. Young and old. I have never met anyone who possessed more joy in such terrible circumstances. Many of the children who come to our carepoint are orphaned and the only meal they get in a day is the mushy porridge slop we feed them. They come everyday in the same dirty rags they call clothes- often without shoes. Yet something they never forget is their beautiful smiles. They love to dance, be held, and give hugs.My heart breaks with love for these children and that is beautiful.
Beauty is also rooted in the sick. On Monday I was able to visit the Hospital in Manzini. Some of the things we saw in that place was hard on the soul. But no matter what the case, nearly everyone there had hope and joy in their eyes. the mothers who would sit with their sick baby for weeks on end in that stinky place had so much faith- and that is beauty.
The 3 sisters who were smiling and laughing as they spent their last days with their 102 yr old mother showed beauty.
The tears that fell from the husband’s face as we prayed with him over his wife showed beauty.
Waking up to a herd of cows next to your window shows beauty.
Going on a run and having little barefoot african children chase after you with their backpacks on and keep up with you for the rest of your run shows beauty.
The way a child’s face lights up when they realize you know them by name and that they are loved as a person shows beauty.
The sound of Go-Go singing as she feeds the chickens in the morning shows beauty.
Jesus fills this place. He fills the hearts of these people. His beauty sparkles on these lives.
And that is enough.
