The small, metallic bowl is still three quarters of the way full. I’ve been squatting on a chair made for the frame of a three year-old for the past 45 minutes saying coaxing things that pass through my head while I look for opportunities to fit the round, silver spoon into the orphan’s mouth. AHA! An opening! Quickly I make of deposit of stewed rice, carrot bits and greens, and quickly, it gets spit right back out. All over me.
I’m on one of those chairs again. This time I’m bracing a child with one knee to stabilize their body, and using the other to restrain them from ripping the small, bowl from my hands. I dip the spoon into the same nutritious mixture of carbohydrates and veggies as quick as I can because if this kid doesn’t have a mouth-full, he will spontaneously combust. I manage the bowl and spoon with my left hand while I hold his body back with my right arm. He’s hungry and he wants every last bite I have to give him! I have to coax him into chewing and swallowing what’s in his mouth first before I give him another spoon full.
One way we served Eagle’s Wings ministries during the month of March was to take care of severely disabled orphans while their ‘ayis’ (ah-yees) received more training on how to care for them. The days we spent at the orphanage helping out involved several rounds of feedings. After February’s baby duties at the orphanage I served at in the Philippines I was pretty cocky over the feeding tricks I learned. I thought I was hot stuff…bottles? I’ll feed four at a time. Baby food? I can get a jar down in seven minutes flat. This month was a whole new level of patience, God’s love and humility.
It seemed easy enough. Spoon to mouth, fill ‘er up, wipe the excess, use bib if needed, repeat. I was not prepared for the amount of food that would be coming back out at me, in various ways mind you, and the level of desperation I would feel over just wanting these children to be able to get all the nourishment I was in charge of giving them. Nourishment they so desperately need.
Oh, wait – what’s that? The voice of God?….
During my last day of helping at the orphanage I was feeding the little boy from paragraph two.Tara and Brittany were next to me having similar experiences to paragraph one. Then Tara, Brittany and I got served by God. Tara starts, and we quickly bring it in to perspective.
The feeding habits of these kids represent what we as a body of believers do more than we know! How often is God just holding out a big, heaping spoon of delicious nourishment for us, just waiting for us to quit squirming, open our mouths and take the bite? And how often do we sometimes receive these things from Him, just to spit them back in His face? Ouch. Am I that kid?
Or, are we hungry, like paragraph two? So hungry that we can’t possibly contain ourselves and we want to rip the bowl from God’s hands and devour what He has to give us? I want so badly to be paragraph two for the rest of my life! Not just at dinner time. Not just when I’ve missed a meal. I want that hunger ALL the time!
Tara gave a great caution to go along with two’s eating habits. Remember I said I had to make sure he actually chewed all of his food and swallowed before I gave him more to eat? She pointed out that it will do no one any good to overzealously gobble the Word if they don’t take the time to process what it is He has for us. Good word. Serving these amazing children taught me more than I knew I needed, and I praise God for his revelations through their beautiful spirits.
