All in the perspective

Yesterday I began treating a new child - a two year old with Down's Syndrome. With her little pudgy fingers, small eyes - I'm sure many a person in Wal-Mart or at restaurants would have looked at her with pity and thought, "Poor family. Poor little girl."

But that little girl was the apple of her mother's eye. That little girl would flash me the most beautiful smile I think I have seen on any baby girl I have ever worked with. And that mother gets to see that smile every day. That little girl will never stamp her feet because she doesn't have the brand name clothing her friends have. She will never pout as her hand-me-down car isn't as great as her friends. She will never tell her mother she doesn't love her - because she is all love.

In the same way, the last couple days I have had Holetta on my mind. A slum of Ethiopia. Where the houses had more cracks and openings than I could count - allowing the turrential rains from the rainy season or the cold of the night to freely enter. The dirt floor with a feed bag to sleep on. One room divided with a piece of cloth. One bench to sit on. One dish pan to cook with. "Poor family. Poor children."

Then I look to another house, one with heat which can roast you in the cold weather and air which can freeze you in the summertime. Three frying pans. Three. Four different sized cooking pots and an extra for the heck of it. Even four different sized baking clays. Two bathrooms. SIXTY different kinds of drinking apparatus (I counted) - mugs, juice cups, nice cups, plastic cups, sports cups. A whole room just to house a washing machine and dryer. At least 15 different blankets in the house.

The first house - that family will never wish their car was a nicer model. They will never get mad that the flowers they bought for in front are dying. They will never yell at their children when they spill red juice on their furniture. That first house - their children will never say "I don't want to eat that" or "why can't I have an X-box like my buddy".

And yet we can always say - "oh others have so much more than I!" I was sickened by a realty show where the couple needed another home as they lamented the fact that they had THREE storage units full of 'stuff' they couldn't fit in their house. I got mad and left the room..... I have fifty cups - for five people..... Reality check.

But yet, both those families, they are the apple of their Father's eye. Both of them. But who are the ones that are joyful for every day? Who are the ones that praise their Father instead of saying 'why me?' Who are the ones that can count on their Father to provide their every need vs. their own paycheck? It's so easy, especially in this economy, in this time in our life, to let the world cloud over the Sonshine isn't it? Just praising God that sometimes hard times come our way, sometimes depression over a situation sets in, just so we can sit back and see the Son again.