Zech, Mary Grace, Ryan, Chelsea, Kyra, and I have a new friend Maswani. She is exhausted. Her father died earlier this year. As her AIDS manifests itself in the final stages, her body looks like a scaly, dry mess. Her feet are incredibly swollen. The skin on her back looks like it is literally melting off like wax. She doesn’t have clothes. She doesn’t have soap. She doesn’t even have her own copy of a Bible. She lies in a small dark hut…hopeless. Waiting to die. Did I mention she’s 19? Yes. She is our peer.
Home visits are usually filled with questions about family, leisure activities, church, etc. But for the first part of our visit, we struggled. Searching for words of comfort…or just conversation.
Of course God can heal Maswani, and maybe He will. But aside from a miracle, she will die soon and there is only one comfort. But it’s the greatest comfort of all…heaven.
Heaven. How often do we put our focus there? How often do we look through eternal eyes, not earthly eyes? Are we so consumed with our home, our finances, and our family that we forget that this is not our home?
In the United States,I am comfortable. Praying over people who are dying is not a daily thing. Holding hungry children does not happen every afternoon. Pain and heartache of losing your entire family is not a cloud hanging over my head. But here in Swaziland, this is life.
And the truth is, for most of the world, it’s no different. We live in a world of hurting people. A world of brokenness and pain. And as I am confronted with this constantly here, I have learned that the only way to deal with this, the only way to serve and minister in joy is to have a heavenly outlook. As Colossians 3:3 instructs us, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” I think if anyone knows this it’s Pastor Gift who has lived in this atmosphere his entire life, and I think he put it best when he said,
“When there are deserts, I see springs of water.
When there is emptiness, I see God; fullness.
When there is darkness, I see light.”
Wow. I want this vision. I want to strive for this vision not just as I spend my days in Swazi, but even when I return to the comforts and distractions of the US. I want to have a heavenly outlook, a mindset focused on my REAL home, and in the meantime…Love. Love. Love. until the day I die ☺
