I had the privilege of spending my first day at Casa Jackson today. This is a ministry that is designed to help feed malnourished children. Since we began our work in Antigua we have had 3 volunteers there a day but today was my first. I had heard that I would fall in love with the babies and I did! The two other girls and I spent most of our time in the room that had 4 infants in it, ages 6, 5, 3 and 2 months old. They were absolutely adorable! The day begins when you arrive at 8 and feed them for the first time. After the first feeding you get to give them their bath for the day, change their sheets and get them dressed for the day. From then on you feed them every two hours. Not too bad right? I didn’t think so either until the second feeding arrived. The first feeding went relatively smoothly, I later decided the babies were just really hungry from all of the hard sleeping they were doing when we got there. The second feeding…not so much. First of all we faced what I had heard about but was really hoping was a rumor. The volunteer director told us when we initially met that there had been a problem with the plastic on the bottle nipples so they used syringes and plastic spoons when necessary. So when the cups of milk were brought in at 10 they were topped off with a plastic spoon. Now, we all know that babies have an automatic reflex to suck when something is placed in their mouth correct? Correction…not when the object stuck into their mouth is a plastic spoon. To say I was frustrated with my precious 5 month old because I couldn’t get her to eat from my plastic spoon would be quite the understatement. It took at least an hour to feed this precious little girl about 20 mL of milk. After that she and I both gave up. We made up for it at the next feeding when the syringes returned, along with my good attitude.
The lessons learned from babies are always amazingly simple, yet profound. During the second feeding I had exactly what the baby needed but my method was not exactly what she was accustomed to. The milk was good. The method was different. How often does the Lord try to feed us exactly what we need but in a manner that is not normal to us? We do just what my little girl did – fight, kick, scream and cry. Even when the milk made it into her mouth she spit it out. Even when the Lord gives me exactly what I need if it’s not how I want it then I tend to spit it out and fight the life giving, life sustaining nutrition that He is pouring into me. All I have to do is lay still while He holds me and allow the food to pour into my soul knowing that my Father gives me only what is good, only what He desires and only what I need.
