I met a girl.
Let’s call her Leah.
Carolyn and Kaylaynn met her at one of the bars and ended up playing pool with her one night.
I joined them another night, and we went back to the same place and I got to meet her.
She is wonderful.
She has a smile that lights up her entire face and eyes that continue to smile even when her mouth has stopped.
We played pool with her the entire night.
Because of the language barrier, that’s literally all we did.
I don’t think I even said one word to her, and she didn’t say one word to me.
But I still spent the night smiling and laughing – it felt like we had been friends for years.
The funny thing is, we didn’t know anything about each other.
I realized today that I could have let that discourage me in a huge way.
We’re in Thailand so that we can build relationships with the people on the bar street and show them Christ’s love.
And when it came to Leah, we weren’t able to build a relationship with her in the conventional way of sitting down, having a conversation, and learning about each other.
We don’t speak the same language, so that was next to impossible to do.
Instead, we had to find another way.
That’s when Jesus comes in.
I’ve been learning this month that loving people doesn’t always involve speaking.
I can love the owner of a bar by helping her set up the tables and chairs before the bar opens for the night.
I can love the little girl selling flowers by buying one from her and then inviting her to play Connect Four with my friends and me.
I can love Leah by smiling, laughing, and investing my time in her.
All of these things show these people that I love them and care about them enough to do these things for them and with them.
It’s love without having to say the word, because love speaks for itself in actions done out of love.
It’s love in a whole new way.
“Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.” (1 John 3:18, NLT).
