"One Quetzal. Ms. Micaiah, look! I have one Quetzal." Which is about 1/8 of a dollar.
"Alejandra what are you going to do with your Quetzal? Buy an extra snack at lunch today?"
When I asked her this question she began to pull a handful of coins out of her front pocket. Small coins, 10 cents and 25 cents and so on. Obviously, she had been collecting pocket change for several days. She holds it up and counts it.
"No, Ms Micaiah, I'm not going to buy something for me. I want to buy you something."
You see, Alejandra woke up this morning and had no breakfast. Black beans and a piece of bread is all the food she'll get today, and that is food she gets at school.
Later she brought me a hard taco with some black beans on it. A snack for me. A gift from her.
I tried to convince her to eat half of it, to share it with me. She defiantly said, "No!" Grabbed my face with her two little hands, looked me in the eyes and said, "You taught me how to add my numbers. Yesterday I felt stupid in class when my classmates could add 2 and 1, but I couldn't. Today, I don't feel stupid. I'm smart. I know that because that's what you told me. This is your snack."
I think I've met my match in Alejandra, that stubborn and generous child. I've never been so overcome with gratitude. Because this child knows what it means to give everything. Everything.
She had something she could offer me. And that act of giving made her feel more valued than any gift I could have given her. She had something to give me. Something of value. Of highest value: All the money she had.
If only I (we) would do the same. Offering our best, our everything to the Father. Pouring out our year's wages of perfume at the feet of Jesus and wasting our lives to follow Christ, to be his disciples.
Alejandra blessed me in a way that's too deep for words.
All through one taco and black beans.
This is the face of a girl who can now do basic addition. That's the smile of a girl who for the first time thinks she is smart. Those are the eyes of a giver.
Grace,
Micaiah
It is amazing when you hear the stories of the Bible told through real life experiences, and even more powerful when you experience them yourself, firsthand. Thank you for bringing the Bible to life. God bless you and Alejandra, and all those you are so graciously sharing your life with in Guatemala. Rudi
ReplyDeleteI find myself taking a few steps back when I read your posts. In the hubbub of our daily lives, we forget the minute but grand lessons we can learn if we take a moment to be still. You must know that in your posts, you also help us remember to add our numbers. When we stop and count the numbers of those blessings, we also realize that we are not stupid. We realized that we are something special, because that's what God told us. Thank you, Micaiah. I'll have your taco waiting when you get back. :)
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