After
two weeks of needing sunglasses, I came home to Kansas not thinking that I
would need my cheap shades in the dim prairie winter. I got in my car to go to
the store and was blinded by the same sun that shone on me just last week in
Thailand. I woke up every morning in
Thailand, watched the sunrise, had a prayer meeting each morning with an
excellent group of people, drank coffee, got “disgustingly tan” (says the
mother), hung out with kids all day on the beach, painted faces, hugged babies,
ate loads of cheap delicious pad thai. Don’t get me wrong, serving in the form
of child care is exhausting but at the same time a little bitty dream.
For
two weeks I was one of four leaders for a group of hilarious “young adults”. I
think at just about every age we are we seem to think that we are in fact very
adultish and pretty cool. My group of adultish people was the 4 year olds. We
called ourselves “The Zoo.” Four year olds think that they are quite grown up
and they know what is good for them but they don’t know what is best. They are
sweet, endearing, uninformed, unqualified little humans whose brains don’t comprehend
why they cannot run into the ocean and swim with the jelly fish. However, as
little as they are, they blew my mind with the stuff that came out of their big
mouths. One little girl, especially…
She
calls me Aunty Liz. She calls me Sister. She calls me Friend. She calls me The
Most Beautiful Princess in the World. The first day I met her she asked me if
she could take my hand, I said yes and we walked together. As we walked she
picked up little tiny pieces of colored Styrofoam. I informed her that they
were just pieces of Styrofoam and I warned the little boy she gave one of these
tiny pieces of Styrofoam to not put it in his mouth. He knew of course that he
should not put Styrofoam in his mouth. Duh, Aunty Liz. After I told my friend that they were just Styrofoam, she said to me,
“Yes, I know, but I will keep them
as my treasures.”
To
me Styrofoam is trash. Mere packaging material meant to be thrown away. Its
noise is grating when broken apart and it is sticky and messy. I do not
appreciate Styrofoam.
---
I
woke up for two weeks to a ready-made breakfast buffet by the beach (sweet
as…). I woke up this morning anxious and worried about what I will face in the
coming weeks; work, paying tuition, being awesome at school, buying gas for my
car, paying rent, buying groceries, being able to relate to grown-ups again… you know, adult
stuff. And to my chagrin the coffee was not ready-made. I know that as an
“adult” I must approach my responsibilities with a sense of maturity, panic,
stress, procrastination… wait, what? This is life? I fidget and curse at all of
those stupid seemingly insignificant tasks I have to approach throughout my
seemingly insignificant days. Yuck. That is not how I want to live, yet I find
myself in this apartment, knowing rent is due in 9 days, knowing I am broke,
and knowing that I am not willing to sell any of my internal organs (or
external organs…can I do that?)
Stuck in my madness, everything menial has become
difficult for me. Okay, maybe I am being dramatic. But seriously, don’t you
find yourself in a space of indifference to the Styrofoam life? This packaged
life that we all have seemed to get stuck in? Aren’t you bored and stressed and
don’t you find yourself cursing that very life which God has given you? I don’t
know, maybe I am alone in my ocean of crazy. I hope not.
So
here is my thought…
Styrofoam does not have to be
boring, solid, annoying or crude. If you feel your life is packaged and mundane,
maybe you should get down on your knees (I will meet you there) and think about your Treasure.
Styrofoam, at a different
eye-level, has been made a treasure. You might think a 4 year old ignorant,
small and insignificant but my small friend broke my heart with her love as she
collected her small colorful treasures.She taught me that God is loving me in my most simple days. And I should collect to be grateful of what life has been given.
p.s. -Thank you to all of you that
allowed us to go to Thailand to serve these missionary families. It was an
honor and a privilege. We know now what a great blessing it was for these
families. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement. We felt that God was
with us every moment. As we trudged through long hot days we knew that prayers
were covering us. I can speak for the team as I say that we are extremely
grateful.
Great stuff here Liz, I am grateful for you. Looking forward to more stories!
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