There’s a beauty that comes in not knowing.
When a bride-to-be is proposed to, there is beauty in her having no idea that a proposal is being planned. She doesn’t have to know the plan, because she knows the one planning.
As I sit in my tent, I look out and see how God knows exactly what His earth needs. The parched African soil is being watered by the first rain in over 8 months. There are 5 sparrows bouncing around on it, eating off of all the roaches and bugs that I killed before going to bed last night.
I’m just reminded that in every way, God knows what we need! If the soil and the birds trust Him as their provider, why is it so hard for us to do the same?
I may not know where my next anything is going to come from, but I know the God who DOES KNOW is my best friend, lover, and provider all at the same time.
Within the past week, a lot of things have hit me and stirred an entirely new passion and perspective in me.
Things that God used to give me the choice of either trusting him or living in fear. Things where God has asked me to give more of my self and more of my trust in order to REALLY receive MORE of Him.
These are the people who are changing the world. I want to share their stories. Because they are the real world changers.
At the beginning of the month here in Malawi, I met a little boy named Christian. He is 6 years old.
His outer ear was covered with a blackened infection that appeared to be growing instead of healing. His head of curly thick hair had many bald spots where his scalp was also infected.
The first day I met him, I knew he was something special. He was the last one in a line of over 300 kids receiving food from the orphan school that day. I saw him get pushed and shoved until he was the very last in line. I waited with the women serving and watched their bowls of Nshima and meat dwindle to almost nothing, only to look up to see 20 children yet to feed. The portions got smaller and smaller until reaching Christian, where he received the burnt Nshima scraped from the bottom of the pot, and a spoonful of meat fat and broth.
He sat it down beside him as he sat by himself and watched me walk over to him.
“Aren’t you going to eat?”
He would put his head down, give a little smile, and then took a bite before getting distracted by something else. Every time he would look or turn away, other kids would be coming over to his plate, ready to eat his food. I brought him over away from the other kids so he could have space to sit and eat. I went to take a picture of him to see his ear infection better in a way that wouldn’t be offensive, but he would turn his ear away from the camera and me so I couldn’t see it. When he finally finished eating, I brought him over to our Pastor and asked if it would be okay if I brought back medicine to treat his ear. He said yes, and Christian ran off. As we walked through the village the next day, we had stopped in a small tienda to get a Coke. I turned around to see Christian and a crowd of other boys peeking through the door opening and window. I brought him inside and sat him down, and said,
“You’re going to get better, just trust me. I need to take a picture of your ear, just trust me. We’re going to get you better!”
Pastor Blessings translated to him as the other kids laughed. But Christian knew. I really felt that in that moment he was choosing to trust me. Being ashamed wasn’t worth not being healed.
A week passed where I didn’t see him. I prayed consistently for God to just heal him, and we went to multiple pharmacies searching for the right treatment for him.
When we returned to the village to see the kids, I had three different treatments with me: an oral antibiotic, hydrogen peroxide for cleaning, and a topical antibiotic treatment to apply. I didn’t even recognize the little boy who my team pointed out- “Isn’t that the little boy with the infection?”
Christian stood in an awkward yellow turtle neck sweater with a bald head and smooth ear.
God really had healed him.
You could still see the whitened spots on his head where the infection had been, and there were still some small spots on his ear that were still cut, but the difference was incredible.
A crowd of about 50 kids gathered around me and him in a circle so tight that I could hardly breathe, as I sat with Christian and his neighbor who I explained the medicine to.
A few days later, we went into the village for a wedding we had been invited to. As we walked back, Christian RAN up beside me smiling as big as ever and held my hand. The most noticeable thing about his ear now was the iodined medicine that was now covering where the wound once was. His mother had continued to take care of him with what was given. He smiled up at me and then ran up ahead. He was completely different! FILLED with hope and life and the joy of the Lord! I had never seen him so free, and so himself. Christ’s love in action had set him free to know that he is taken care of.
These things don’t only happen in Africa!
You don’t have to travel the world or meet an African child to show others that YOU ALSO are free because you know that you are taken care of. Christian has something that some people search for their entire lives: he chose to believe the truth. That he is taken care of. He is valuable. And his life matters.
If he could see this at age 6, haven’t you also seen enough of God’s provision in your life to walk confidently knowing that God is looking out for you always? And if you really know and trust in that, why do you live in timidity?
The second Christian saw that he was taken care of, he became a different person- FREE and excited about life!
Every day, every moment, holds acts of God’s love and provision for you. He’s got our backs. And if we really believed that, we would live a lot freer than we are settling for now!
God is always asking, “Who cares about my children? Who wants to be a part of me speaking to and restoring my children on earth?” And He is eager for the person who is willing to stand up and finally say ” I DO!”
You don’t always have to know exactly what God is doing. But trust that HE IS ALWAYS DOING.
Christian didn’t know what I was doing, but he knew that I was going to help him. He trusted in the process, and because he did, he got to emerge in joy of seeing the results.
This is exactly how God is. He is always working things together for our good. Even when I think I have every reason to question him, to block him out and choose not to trust him again, or to try and just work things out myself. He is at work. And choosing to walk through the process with him instead of just waiting for the result brings TRUE INTIMACY in learning to truly trust Him.
