I’ve recently come to the realization that I’ve had an idealized view of poverty my entire life.
Somehow when I see a picture of a half naked child sitting in garbage, I see beauty. Maybe it’s the photographer in me, but I see something lovely in destruction. I’m drawn to the idea of something beautiful or innocent in a surrounding that is it’s opposite in every way.
Until now.
When a little girl who reeks of urine looks up at you with so much need in her eyes, but wants nothing more than to be held and loved by you – it is impossible to do anything but hold her in your lap and whisper in a language that she doesn’t understand that Jesus loves her.
Mother Teresa said “Today it is very fashionable to talk about the poor. Unfortunately it’s not fashionable to talk with them.”
And how true it is.
How often have I passed by the hungry and homeless on the streets of New York without a second thought? But here, where everywhere I look the hungry and homeless stare back at me, it’s impossible to ignore .. and I don’t want to.
It has taken some time for God to show me the beauty in Carrefour. It’s a rough place, with a lot of rough people. But He’s now beginning to show it to me in unexpected ways. I see it in the smiles of the children who follow us on the street, in the heart of our translator who pastors a church two hours from his home without pay because that’s where God has called him, in the laughter of our friend Samentha who, even though she doesn’t speak a word of English, comes to sit with us nearly every day and build friendship without words.
God is showing me that there is beauty all around me, I just have to see with my heart instead of my eyes.
Daily, I feel the Spirit whisper in my ear, “whatever you do for the least of these, you do for me.”
I believe that there is something about a human in need .. completely dependent on God for their next meal .. a place to lay their head .. that touches the Father’s heart in a special way. And He shows up for them each and every day.
The poor know they are poor. They know they can’t do it on their own, and they’re almost better off for it. In the western world, where we feel self sufficient, it is often hard for us to see our desperate need for a Savior – but it’s as real as our need for food and water.
My prayer is that no matter where I go in life, whether in prosperity or poverty, that I will always see myself as I truly am: a dirty, hungry child, who is wholly given, totally desperate and completely dependent on her Father to meet every need.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
