Is it really possible to give thanks in all circumstances?
I learned the answer to this very
question a few years ago when I was privileged to go on a mission trip to
Haiti.
As a member of the “cooking team”, I was
on my way to the building site with food for the men working on the mission
chapel in Haiti. As always we were immediately surrounded by a group of
children. They had hungry eyes and outstretched hands but smiles on their faces
.
We had anticipated this so had brought extra
cookies with us. Of course we didn’t have enough. There were always too few
cookies and too many children.
As I held out the last cookie, my eyes
were drawn to a hand that appeared to have an extra pinky finger. I put the
cookie in that hand and stood back to see who it belonged to. He was about eight and had a smaller boy with
him
You could tell they were both hungry.
The boy I had given the cookie to, looked at it and then at the smaller boy.
Carefully he broke the cookie into two even pieces and shared it with the one
who had none. I did not see any self pity or resentment in that moment.
Instead, in those hungry eyes I saw only gratefulness for the gift and the
desire to share it with a loved one.
That little boy taught me a couple of lesson
that have stayed with me for years. It
doesn’t matter how bleak our world looks today, to be joyful we simply need to
be thankful for what we do have and be willing to share it with those who don’t
have.
He taught me that an imperfect world is no excuse for an ungrateful heart.
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