Not the Pixar movie.
I’m talking about my tutoring buddy from my time at El Shaddai in Swaziland. We could either choose a buddy or have the staff randomly assign us a child to tutor each day after they got home from school. I opted for the random assignment and anxiously awaited the announcement ceremony our first Monday night in the Chapel.
We sat on simple wooden benches in a concrete building on top of a mountain that had windows overlooking the lush green valley below.
The staff energetically announced each child’s name and had them stand up front to wait for their Racer to also be announced and come join them. It was beautiful to see the enthusiasm my squad had as they ran up and greeted their buddies who always had wide grins stretched across their little faces. There was no shortage of high fives and hugs that night.
When my turn finally came I ran up and excitedly hugged my buddy and he returned with me to my seat and sat holding my hand the rest of our time in the Chapel.
(Confession. I didn’t even know his name that first night. It was too chaotic when they announced him I didn’t catch it. Plus it’s not exactly an English name so it was difficult for me to remember anyways. I spent the evening trying to figure out his name, but he wouldn’t tell me so I just started calling him Nemo. He seemed to like his new nickname, so it stuck the rest of the month.)
As we sat finishing up the announcement ceremony, Nemo and I sat hand-in-hand watching the last few Racers get paired up with their buddies. Occasionally he would look up at me and just smile. He had the sweetest smile. There was something special about his smile and it took me all month to figure out just what it was.
I don’t know much about Nemo’s background or how he came to live at El Shaddai Children’s Home. I do know, though, that in his 8 short years of life he has seen and experienced much more pain than anyone ever should. But his past isn’t what I saw when I was with him.
The boy I got to know was incredibly smart. He loved to study, especially math. He knew his alphabet and enjoyed writing his letters. He was a perfectionist and would have to start over on a new piece of paper when he made mistakes. He was super mischievous and so enjoyed to play jokes on me.
We laughed, raced, danced, sang, played, and hugged every day.
But the most amazing thing I saw in Nemo was the unconditional love of the Father. The eyes behind his smile made me feel like I was the most valuable person in the world. Like nothing I could do would ever change the way he saw me.
Nemo taught me the way we see people is a very real and very important expression of God’s love for them.
I want to view every person I cross paths with the way I saw Nemo look at me. I want them to be able to look into my eyes and know they are treasured and cherished more than anything else the world has to offer. That they are remarkable and irreplaceable. That they truly were fearfully and wonderfully made by the Creator of the Universe and He still looks at them as His most prized possession.
Because that’s the truth.
