My quiet time looked a little different today. I went outside to be on the porch, one of my favorite places. I found an open chair and sat down. It wasn’t long before I heard a little voice, I turned around and saw Arvin standing behind me. Arvin is a boy from the community. He has some mental handicaps and doesn’t communicate through speaking, but more so with sounds and, well, smiles. I smiled at him, which was returned by a huge grin–something Arvin is famous for. Now I suppose to him, my smile was an invitation to climb up on my lap, which he did. He started to pick up my Bible, then put it down, next he picked up my pen, then my journal. He looked at me and grabbed the pen and opened up my journal. He looked up at me, almost as if to see if I was going to stop him. I smiled again and opened my journal to a blank page and pointed for him to draw there. He started making little doodles on the page. I smiled and exclaimed, “Good job!” He got so excited that he bounced up and down on my lap and started drawing bigger doodles. I then told him, “salamat,” which is “thank you” in Tagalog. Soon after that he was done and he jumped off my lap. Oh how he made me smile. I was reminded how Jesus said, “let the little children come to me…” Matt. 19:14. I couldn’t believe that even for a split second I thought, “I’m sorry, I can’t talk to you right now, I’m trying to talk to God.” And in reality, God met me in the most tangible way this morning, by sending one of His beloved children to spend time with me. I can’t believe I thought my quiet time was being interrupted, when actually it was being enriched through Arvin. How precious and special it was for him to come sit by me–even just for a few minutes. I’m truly thankful God did not allow me to miss out on that blessing. I am continually being shown that what I have in mind for the way something should go, is not always what God has in mind. And His ways are always good. So good.
