It’s a hard thing- to come to the end of a season that has been huge in your life.
If I can try to wrap up my biggest lesson from this experience into one idea, it’s that I love love.
It’s been the little things I loved. Even though the children here know little to no English, we’ve made friends. They know we are friends because we have loved them well. When they skin their knee they come to their malongos. When they just want a band-aid they find a tiny scratch and come to us too. When they fall on the playground we dry their big fat tears and wipe their noses. We run on top of the tires with them, and sometimes we even sacrifice ourselves in a game of The Floor Is Lava for a tiny human.
Now that’s love.
All joking aside, we planted seeds here in these children. We’ve watered in older people, and we are praying that God would bring the growth.
“So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth… For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.”
Being in this place has made me see the Lord’s love differently, too. Many Americans may see God as a man who will punish them if they tell a lie, or an idea that they pray to every night or before meals.
Here, God is a provider. He provides the food for your belly and the roof over your head. He’s a comforter when both your parents have long passed away and you’re taking care of your brothers and sisters, although you’re only 12 yourself.
He works miracles in front of our eyes no matter where we are, if we would only take the time to look.
I pray that in my life and yours, that our gardens are plentiful. That they would bring good fruit, and that God would bless the planting and watering, growing the people around us in every season, and us in the process. I pray that we could open our eyes in the places we are in now, and love people, wherever they may be in life. And I pray that no matter where The Lord takes you or me, that we would be open to His calling in our lives, and know that His plans are in His timing, and perfect. He’s a great Father. May we see His love more fully, and overflow every day to others.
“Beloved let us love one another, for love us from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
