Windows of the Heart

What do you see when you look into someone’s eyes?  Though we can never see the soul, it can be said on occasion that the eyes are the windows of the heart.  Many things are often revealed by looking into someone’s eyes.  The eyes may reveal the worry of a mother who has not heard from her roaming child since many days ago;  they may reveal the anger of a son who’s been abandoned by his father;  they may reveal the sorrow of a senior who has been neglected by those she loves most; they may reveal the joy of newlyweds still very much in love;  they may reveal the pride of a father whose son just received a medal of courage from the army; they may reveal the confusion of a teenager who’s faced with peer pressure;  eyes often tell a story.

Sometimes our daily lives can get so busy and obstructed that we fail to look into the eyes of the people we meet.  This is a shame, not only because we fail to see a little of the soul but because maybe we also missed the opportunity to speak with our own eyes.  If we had taken time to look at that person we met, we may have been able to bring a sense of peace through eyes of comfort, strength through eyes of encouragement, a sense of worth through eyes of love, hope through eyes of joy, friendship through eyes of concern, we could have conveyed some sense of understanding and care.  Instead we are often guilty of simply nodding or pretending to listen while thinking about ourselves and personal business.

The Psalmist said in Ps. 34:  16-19 “The king is not saved by a mighty army, a warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness, to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.” (NASB)  Did you see it?  Do you think God just gives us a “passing glance”?  His eyes look upon us in a ay strong enough to save.  He knows what’s hidden in our hearts and when we look into His eyes, we receive everything we need.  Daily we have opportunities to glimpse into the hearts of people and to add something to the soul.  Have you stopped today to look through any windows?

Family Ties

God Himself created us to live in family and He made no mistakes about it when at the very beginning He created male and female to live together and then told them to replenish the earth.  The means of replenishing would be through family.  So the family became God’s foremost display of Himself, His choice means of showing His own love and care.  And that’s why it’s so special, so powerful!  Praise God for such a wonderful institute, a place where we can be cared for, protected, loved, free to be ourselves, to share our most intimate and dear memories.

Words cannot express my own appreciation for my family and childhood, even more so since coming to Mwanza and sharing in the lives of the children at the orphanage.  It’s an unfair part of this sinful world that precious children should ever be left without a home, without parents to care for them individually as God intended, without memories of time and attention being devoted entirely to them.  Each child and teenager deserves that kind of environment, but it doesn’t always happen this way.

Thankfully, God has made family powerful enough to transcend birth so that it can exist among people who have no birth connections.  Thankfully family can be created through love, devotion and concern.  It can be created by intention, by choosing to see someone as part of ourselves regardless of birth.  After all, if this wasn’t the case, a man and woman would never marry. We can choose children in the same way as we choose a spouse. We can choose brothers and sisters.  We can choose to love and create family.  We can choose to add to the lives of others and allow them to add to our lives.  We can choose to be transparent and open and build relationships of trust and freedom.  We can choose to give ourselves freely and lovingly.  We can choose to create family ties where otherwise there would be none.

Everyone needs to be loves. Everyone needs a place of protection. Everyone needs a place in which to learn how to live – to walk, talk, act and function in society.  Everyone needs a place of safety, a focal point or that stable place to which they can return when the world treats them unfair or hurts them.  And though this does not exist right now, we know it should, and it reminds us that God’s plan is greater, that He has more in store.  And though we cannot create such a place for everyone, we can create it for those we know and meet.  We can open our hearts and lives and pour into others.  I’m thankful God blessed me with a family who taught me to love and who loved me so much that today I have at least some to give away, and I can give it without worrying if there will be enough because I have learned after these years that love only increases!

The "Toilet" Baby

If you’re reading this, you probably read “The Shamba Baby”, in which I told the story of  Neema who was found crying on a farm by the woman who then raised her.  If that story was moving, this one perhaps moreso.  Today I sat with a handsome young man who is 16 years old and entering Form 3 which is grade 10.  He is a very intelligent boy who like math, physics and biology, and aspires to study medicine to become a doctor.  He is very polite, quiet yet friendly, and was not embarrassed or “proud” to smile at us.  He speaks English fairly well and likes to play football (soccer), as most young African boys.

Yusufu lives with his “grandmother” and two sisters. The mother who raised him only comes to visit, but lives elsewhere due to work responsibilities. She must work to help pay rent for the house.  This woman works as a nurse or medical assistant.  That was  how she came to meet Yusufu as an infant. She was working at the hospital to which he was admitted after he was found “discarded” in the hole of an outdoor toilet.  I’m sure we can’t imagine it to be true, just as the traveller who went to avail of that toilet couldn’t imagine it was a baby’s cry he heard.  However, it was a baby and when he went to find the police, they had to remove the toilet walls and ground in order to recover the baby without harm.  Thankfully, the baby’s cry was heard in time else I could not tell this story and one of the nurse’s working that day was moved enough to take the infant as her own.  She has received assistance from ChildCARE Plus since Yusufu was 6 days old!

It somehow takes too long to sink into the mind that this could be a reality, but the stories are endless.  And God, the Great, Loving Creator and Masterplanner, knows His children.  Again I wonder how He will use this young man, and I smile at how Satan must shiver with defeat when such a cruel plan of destruction is overthrown by the providence of God.  He comes to kill and destroy but God comes to save the life when at the sound of a baby’s cry death is robber of its victim.  To be sure, such a beginning warrants a triumphant end, and through CCP, sponsors have the privilege of being involved in that triumph.  However, we remember that only God can possibly take such dark events and turn them into a beautiful portrait of life, light and hope.