We’re about a week into Month 1, and it has been incredible. We’ve made our home in a place called Las Lajas, a beautiful city about 5 hours from Panama City. The ministry we’re working with is called ICJesus and works to bring God’s love to the indigenous people of Panama. We’ve hiked up a mountain, been drenched in the beautiful downpours of this rainy season, sang songs in Church, taught English lessons, and danced with children laughing on our shoulders.
One of these children is named Melvin, and he taught me a lesson about love. I’m trying to constantly ask myself, “What does love look like?” and then go and live that out. Love looks like putting the other person first; it means giving of yourself even when it’s the hard thing to do. Because love isn’t easy… you have to choose it. If you know me well, you probably know that I love my bracelets because each one represents someone or something that is special to me. Saturday morning, I began with ten of them and a few hours later, I went home with five… because the kids wanted them, and how do you say “No” to those faces? The very last one I gave away was my bright green PKRC bracelet. If you’ve ever been to this camp, you know what this means. But let me fill the rest of you in. PKRC is a camp in Texas that works magic in the lives of kids with special needs. It changed my life, it’s my favorite place in the world, and I’ve had that bracelet on my wrist for nearly two and a half years because it was a constant reminder of the place where I left a little piece of my heart. But today, something else mattered more. Melvin mattered more; love mattered more.
As we were playing, it was like the whole world faded as he grabbed ahold of it gently and looked at me with begging eyes. I paused for a moment and then asked, “Lo quieres (Do you want it)?” He whispered, “Si` (yes).” “Lo quieres mucho (a lot)?” “Si`.” “Mucho, mucho?” and he nodded with the most innocent eyes and the most hopeful smile I have seen, and he had me… that was it. And this treasured piece of my heart will now forever be in Panama.
This isn’t a story about some immense sacrifice I made, some incredible gift I gave someone, or my great ability to love. Because the thing is that my love was actually too small… that’s why I asked him so many questions… because I didn’t want to give it away and thought maybe he’d change his mind. Instead, this is a story about the immensity of Christ’s love and the power that it has. His love is the love that met Melvin. This Race is a journey for us to learn to be more like Jesus… and Jesus gave us everything. Certainly I could give away a bracelet.
So what does love look like? This time, it looked like a bright green bracelet that was a bit too big for the dark brown arm of a smiling boy in Panama. And it was a beautiful sight!
Melvin with his new bracelet 🙂
