Love Is Colorless 8/2/2016

Good Morning,

I am back at home from our mission trip to Haiti and sipping on a cup of Door County Pecan Cinnamon Ice Cream Coffee and enjoying it immensely.

Part of our trip was to work in a school and minister to a small underfunded orphanage. We came armed with dental hygiene, medicine, some clothing and a few toys. I arrived earlier with two co-workers before the large group arrived later in the week. As the gate opened we peered in and saw about 23-25 little Haitian kids staring back at us. I am not one who attracts kids very well. It might be my grumpy demeanor? (Probably so). These kids needed so much. We had nothing with us at this time but our cell phones and two smiles. I had left my smile in the Haitian Customs at the airport. That's another story. But soon enough the kids approached my two friends and they were hugging them and crawling up on their laps. Now I am a doer. I was getting angry with myself for not having thought to bring some stuff. "Kids need stuff"! I was sitting there and all of a sudden this little guy crawls up on the lap of Mr. Grumpy and then smiles. He wanted a hug from an old sweaty man. His eyes melted my heart and pretty soon I was showing videos from my phone that I had taken of our dog training to hunt. These kids loved it. We made muscles and arm wrestled. The old man was pinned each and every time by every kid.

What was spectacular was this. These little kids did not care about the color of our skin, or our age. They accepted us as some people who just might share some love with them. they reached out to us first.  They did not care if we had anything to give them. Later in the week we would bless them with gifts, necessities and some more fun. It made me wonder, who received more, the little kids, or the Americans who had their hearts filled with love by these children?  It's hard to tell. But the love showed no color preference. The only thing in that the dirty little orphanage was love and it was colorless, as it should be.

1 Corinthians 13:13New International Version (NIV)
¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Have a great day. Hug a kid and let them hug you back.

Good to be home!

Marty