Birds, Grass, Lilies

She bends over the fresh-cut grass.  She's out gathering in the dry season the long stalks for the roof of her house while the sun is still rising.  She's one of the most joyful women in the choir yesterday, her smile contagious, and it still lingers on her face after we speak our early-morning greetings and she tells me, "I have to get some new grass on my roof, or my children won't have a very happy time when it rains through!" 

I ask her how she makes a living, her husband dead, three children to feed and her all alone.  She plants, on rented land, and prays...for rain...so they can eat.  

And keeps praying "Sundays, Wednesdays, every day," she says with a laugh, knowing her life depends on the rain, and the Rain Maker.

"I sell peanuts to the fishermen, too.  Even if I can just bring home 5,000 shillings ($3.50), we can buy our corn flour, we can eat."

"God is so good, and is able to do anything.  He has (quite literally, in Swahili) gone above and beyond for us people here on earth."

Not a trace of worry, not a little hint of discontentment.  I stand, speechless.  How can I agree when I am so prone to worry and complain?  I, who have an abundance of everything.  My biggest problem is what to make for dinner, not where the food is coming from.  Us, with all of our menus, recipes, planners, organizers, charts, graphs.  Her, with her simple faith, holding out her open hands to thankfully receive whatever her God puts into them.  

Why is it that these people, who have so little, never ask the question about the goodness of God and the suffering in the world?  Of all of us, shouldn't they be the ones shaking their fists in the air?  How can it be that people who live from day-to-day should teach me about not worrying, being thankful?  Why is it that those of us from the West are always asking the question, "Can I afford it?"  Why do they have an easier time believing that what Jesus said is what He really meant, "In this world you will have trouble.  But do not fear--I have overcome the world!"

"It's fine for people in America to have one or two children," says Mr. Misungwi, our old friend. "There isn't any land in America!  Here if you only have one or two children, you better have a tiny garden!  Many children means many hands!" He doesn't buy into USAID or WHO for a second--He really, truly believes that children are a blessing from God and that his have had everything they need--his, who lived in a mud hut, three of his ten, who died when they were little. 

Milka taught on Matthew 6 last Bible club.  Somehow it sounded different with all those dark faces staring back at us in the shade of the towering tree.

"Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink..."

Their bellies, if they are full, are full of the same corn meal.  Day after day...

Their water, bucketed on small heads morning and evening, still dirty...

"Or about your body, what you will wear..."

Their shirts torn and dirty, little ones pantless and bare...

But He speaks to ME then, "Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?"

I'm ashamed that I want to give her a month's worth of money, not only for her, but because I don't want her to have to trust like I don't, want to get rid of the nagging guilt of having so much more.

And my friend from church, she echoes what He says, "your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?"

"God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise..."  And the ones that the world calls uneducated, and poor, and ignorant, He uses to shame me and my arrogance and my lack of dependence on Him.

And they accept, gratefully, children, food, harvest, water,
death even.

I write it big, so I remember: 

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.  II Timothy 6:17