If you are what you eat……..then we are now watermelons!
That will change! In some of the early months, we existed on raspberries, apricots, and peaches, in successive progression! But now it is the prime melon season, and we have definitely devoured our share. They are incredible…juicy, red, sweet…a pleasant assault on our taste buds. Since it only costs about 10 lei (70 cents) for one enormous watermelon, we feel free to keep one cooling down in the refrigerator at all times.
Yet with the abundance of cheap watermelons, I saw something the other day that truly startled me. An old lady was picking watermelon pieces out of the garbage, eating the melon that had been left on the rind. An entire watermelon costs mere pennies to us, yet she did not have the pennies to purchase one.
I see the poverty in other ways too…the scrap of bread left on top of the dumpster for someone to eat; the man in a wheelchair at the street corner, begging for some coins; the lady selling cigarettes one smoke at a time.
Most missions work is surrounded with poverty…from the street kids in St. Petersburg to the famine-stricken in Africa. I’ve seen the poor living in the garbage dumps of Mexico and witnessed the destitution on the streets of Honduras. Poverty is a common sight with most missionaries.
Yet as I saw that old woman eating garbage scraps, I suddenly realized I had been staring at poverty my whole life. I’ve watched my friends and neighbors, picking garbage from the spiritual dumpster. Without Christ, they had nothing……not a scrap, not a bite, not a morsel.
They were poor…dirt poor. Their alcohol didn’t sustain them. Their careers didn’t feed their soul. Their families, fame, and finances couldn’t fill their spiritual stomach. Yet they kept searching…from dumpster to dumpster.
They walked past the “markets,” never realizing that Christ was actually served for free! They didn’t understand that God would freely fill their lives with Living Water and the Bread of Life. In fact, most never even realized they were that poor.
Yet we all started there…poor, dirt poor. When we realize we have nothing, we are close to true understanding.
We have nothing to offer Christ…yet He offers us life.
We have nothing to pay for our forgiveness…yet He gives it anyway.
We have nothing to give…but our hearts…our lives…our all.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3
Serving in Moldova,
Andy Raatz