Rachel and I happen to be on dish duty almost every time that we have church, which causes us to be late most of the time, but we are always able to catch the last few hours of the lengthy services :). I think that two of the boys living with us, Jifty and Derama, began to pick up on this, because they decided to help us on Wednesday night so we could finish quicker.
I’ll admit that I’ve often times paid more attention to the younger children living in the house; they speak English better than others and they’re just hilarious. Jifty and Derama have been gracious about this, and join in on card games or other “big kid” games when possible. But, since it was just them, Rachel, and I washing the dishes, they soaked up the individual attention.
Derama vigorously rinsed each dish before handing it to me, and then watched my reaction to his efforts. Because Derama finally had my attention, he was earnestly seeking my approval.
I’ve already written about how I’ve been reading the book Crazy Love since I left for the World Race. Francis Chan talks about how we treat God like someone that we should always be terrified of; we do our best to follow Him, but are scared of the reaction we will receive if we fail.
Derama wanted me to love him; he wanted for me to approve of his helpfulness. What he didn’t realize was that I loved him regardless of whether he helped us with the dishes or not; I loved him for the good things that I saw him, and his pure joy for life. Isn’t God the same? Yes, God wants for us to give our best and seek after Him wholeheartedly, but He already knows we will inevitably fail and loves us for exactly the way we are
