Hands

Meet Yvoinette.  She is one of the nannies at the boy's home.  Every morning she comes to the home with her little boy Wiskinley in tow and spends the day cooking and cleaning and caring for the children.  She is a sweet-natured woman with a streak of spunk and humor.  She has one of those addictive laughs that makes you smile even though you don't know why.  

Yesterday she delivered a beautiful dinner to me as a special treat. As I thankfully ate the meal, I was struck by how her hands are being used to share God's love with those around her.  Every time she washes a little boy's dirty dish or cleans a diaper or cooks yet another monsterous pot of rice and beans, she is loving.  Her hands are very much used to share the love and care of Christ for these boys.  Although this work isn't glorious and must be tiring and tedious in many ways, it is like catching a glimpse of the servant-heartedness of our Lord to see her hands at work.

At the same time that Yvoinette's hands were busy serving, two of the big boys, Jovenel and Richardson, were using their hands to create.  They have worked hard, with the help of some kind men to supervise, to build their own fort.  What fun and creativity are manifest in the work of these young hands!  I went with them yesterday to sign out some tools for them to use in upgrading "their house."  You could almost hear the gears in their minds turning as they imagined what kind of roof they would put on the fort and how they might make a cement floor.  Even with their unstructured time of summer vacation, the boys were using their hands to build and create, as an echo of their God who is the original Creator.

And so today, as I sit in meetings about summer school and take time to visit with the boys, I'm thinking about how my hands are being used.  Are they being used to tear down or to build up?  Are they sitting idle or are they at work in ways that honor my Savior?  My prayer today is that each moment I would be reminded that the works of my hands are able to praise my God and echo His care for those around me!  With much love in Christ, Jessie