This week we have been working at the “Grandpa House” (nursing home) where we go and spend time with the seniors. I was so excited about this because I absolutely love seniors, but the way I usually relate to seniors was challenged due to language barriers. I love listening to their stories and asking them about all that they’ve seen and done in this life,butnotbeing able tounderstand as they shared was hard. I really wrestled with that at the beginning of the week, not knowing what to do and a spirit of apathy came over me. I just felt the ministry we were doing there was pointless and so I sat there wanting to leave the whole time. I prayed about it and felt the Lord saying, “you have to find a new way to love.” I looked at my paints sitting on my bedroom floor and thought how great it would be to paint portraits of the grandpas and grandmas. So the next day I brought them and as soon as I got there I asked a lady named Augustina if I could paint a picture of her. From what I understood she said yes and so I sat and studied the shape of her face, the color of her skin, and the lines that marked out her life. She was beautiful in all her years.
As I looked in to her deep, old eyes and painted her locks of gray I was humbled. What a gift it was to be given permission to sit there for twenty minutes and stare quietly into someone’s face. No words were needed, no explanation given, just trust. When I was finished, another grandma and grandpa asked me to paint their picture as well. What a joy it was to hand them their picture and see their face light up. I could sense them saying, “that’s me? You did this for me? You saw me?” I walked away that day feeling such an honor and a new found way to love.
My prayer for this journey has been to really see people. To see them when they are far off and when they are close by. To see what they are expressing and what they are not. To see past their clothes and flesh and physical circumstances, into the depths of their soul. When we see a person’s heart, when we see the life in their lines, we get a real glimpse of who they are and the Father’s heart for them. Because He loves His people so. Wow, does He ever love us!
I am in process. I am learning how to love and be stretched in expressing it. God has given me Guatemala in this moment to seize the day and to learn to love to the full.
May you come to see people.
May you find new ways to love.
And may you find it an HONOR to look into the lines of someone’s life.
