Today when I came back home from work my little neighbors were so excited to see me. They are three little black girls that really love me! They had just gotten off the bus, and I got to see them get off the bus as I was directly behind it. Well ... I pulled in to the parking spots near the mailboxes and talked with them for a bit. My youngest neighbor of the three was excited about seeing something in my car, and I thought that she was saying "gold." She wanted whatever she was telling me about, but I couldn't make out what she was describing. So, I opened up my car door to let her show me what she was seeing that I truly couldn't see.
It turns out that she saw a dollar under my seat. It was my lunch money for the week. I had stuck it under the seat. As small of a thing as that was, at the time I simply didn't want to give her a dollar. I thought the other kids would hear her and that I'd be giving out a bunch of money. That's pretty ridiculous and greedy of me ... yet, it is the truth. So, I drive my car over to park in front of my apartment, and my Papa thankfully convicted me of my greed and foolishness. I decided to get out of the car, go give them all hugs, thank my neighbors for finding my lunch money, and give them a dollar each.
I had such joy to go give them each one dollar realizing that this small amount of money was huge to them and even moreso was a powerful investment into the Kingdom of God. I was also reminded of how when I was a child that one buck was such an exhorbant amount of money and pleasing to me. I am thankful to have been reminded too that it is God who provides so much for me daily and that without Him I have nothing. And so, I just challenge all who read this to forget about themselves and go out to bless others in love with the things that the Lord has provided.
For the past week, many of my friends have been struggling with the issue of love. I too have struggled with this issue especially throughout this afternoon and evening. I find it interesting that God created most people to have a helpmate (a husband or wife) and that love has been such an omnipresent desire and struggle since nearly the dawn of time. As I've pondered love off and on throughout my day, I keep being reminded of something I read in The Little Prince two days or so ago Though there is a lot that I still don't get in that book, I highly recommend it and look forward to being enlightened about the deeper meanings of that book.
And so, I share with you now two enchanting depictions of real, true love ...
"My flower is ephemeral," the little prince said to himself, "and she has only four thorns to defend herself against the world. And I have left her on my planet, all alone!" This was his first moment of regret. But he took courage once more.
… He was standing before a garden, all a-bloom with roses. … The little prince gazed at them. They all looked like his flower. "Who are you?" he demanded, thunderstruck.
"We are roses," the roses said.
And he was overcome with sadness. His flower had told him that she was the only one of her kind in all the universe. And here were five thousand of them, all alike, in one single garden!
"She would be very much annoyed," he said to himself, "if she should see that … She would cough most dreadfully, and she would pretend that she was dying, to avoid being laughed at. And I should be obliged to pretend that I was nursing her back to life --- for if I did not do that, to humble myself also, she would really allow herself to die …"Then he went on with his reflections: "I thought that I was rich, with a flower that was unique in all the world; and all I had was a common rose.
… It was then that the fox appeared. … "To me, you (the prince) will be unique in all the world. To you, I (the fox) shall be unique in all the world …"
… "Go and look again at the roses. You will understand now that yours is unique in all the world. Then come back to say goodbye to me, and I will make you a present of a secret."
The little prince went away, to look again at the roses. "You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you (established ties), and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."
"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you --- the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is she that I have sheltered behind the screen; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three that we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose."
And he went back to meet the fox. "Goodbye," he said.
"Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." … "It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important." … "You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose …"
May we all have eyes that can see that which is invisible and the love described in 1 Corinthians 13.
cheerful
contemplative