You Should Have Seen It In Color

 I could tell you of the beauty my eyes have beheld over the years and how amazing it is the history in which they hold, the places and moments they have witnessed. I could tell you how my pictures can’t do the African night sky justice, and I’d love to tell you of the mountains and their beauty. The splendor of every sunrise and sunset we see here. I’ve seen the world around me, I have dove deep into culture, lived in the rough, seen many faces, and tasted many foods, I’ve had many beautiful moments that my eyes have seen, but here in this place I’ve seen one of the most precious moments. I didn’t see in color, I saw in black and white.

Let me tell you of David and Shiloh. Shiloh is our host’s granddaughter a white South African blonde hair, white skinned blue eyed cute little girl, and David a Swazi, so dark skinned black genius of a little boy. David is 8 and Shiloh is 5. I watched David walk Shiloh to wherever they were going, doing whatever they were going to do. It was one of the sweetest moments I’ve seen here.

David walked with Shiloh arm around her talking to her guiding her as a older brother would do. Both these kids have stories. David especially. David adopted in to the host Charmain’s family as he an orphan boy became grafted into a home he can call his own, and with a family that loves him.

Every day I learn from these kids. Jesus said in Matthew 19:14 “Let the little ones come to me, and do not hinder them for such is the Kingdom of Heaven, it belongs to ones such as these”. I sat down in Grassroots with a dear friend right before leaving, and spoke of this moment. This very moment when I knew it would be the kids I would learn from.

Sure we work. That’s what I love doing too. I love working with my hands and seeing physical representation of progress and that something is done, finished, completed. We work hard all day. We do a lot of manual labor, we clean pig pens out, work in the garden, build fire breaks on the mountain, level the roads up and down the mountain, we’re running a clinic twice a week now, and gearing up for house visits as well around in other villages. 

All of that sounds very busy, but TIA This Is Africa. Everything here moves at a much slower pace. We just kind of live in time, not for time. We work hard, we sing, we dance and throughout our day there are these little moments your eyes get to capture something beautiful like this. You get to watch a sunset, or see the clouds roll over the mountain peak. You see the stars in the sky and can swear you could just reach out and touch them. 

It's in this moment I get to see love displayed not with veiled lens or prejudice, but simply Kingdom type love. Love that knows no color, no race. Only heart, only human. A young boy and a young girl, black and white, Swazi and South African they are teaching me love today. 

Take a minute today and look around you. Look around you at how love is displayed to you today. Maybe it's in a sunset, or another person. Maybe it's in your family, your friends or where you work. Wherever you see love displayed today soak it up, take it all in. . 

Where do you see love displayed?