Clinic Time!
Last week I was working in the clinic at Cedeno. This city is located on the coast and is one of the poorest cities Mission Lazarus works with. I was doing my usual clinic job of taking and recording the weights of the patients as they came in before their consults. Each person is always warm and friendly and happy to finally be able to get to the clinic. One patient in particular really stood out to me. She was a mother who walked in with her three-year-old daughter on her hip. The little girl was wearing small black sunglasses. The mother proceeded to take off the girl’s glasses to show me her daughter’s calloused disfigured eyes; she was obviously blind. I stepped closer to her, took her hand, and said “hola!” An immediate smile grew onto her face and she returned the greeting. I was so humbled with the amount of joy someone could have in such debilitating circumstances. Not only is this a lifelong inconvenience, but she will never have the opportunities that people with her same disability in the states have to adapt to their blindness. The strange thing was the fact that I almost immediately felt a love for this little girl, a care that I would have for only my family and close friends. I felt in that moment like I would do anything to comfort her. I had never met her and would probably never see her again. That got me to thinking: if I could feel that way for her, why don’t I feel that for everyone I meet and know? Back home, I almost feel that others have to earn my love and care; that they have to prove themselves to be nice, or patient, or have a good heart for me to show love towards them. Who am I to be that way when Christ unconditionally loves each and every one of us despite all of our flaws, disabilities, and wrong doings? We will never be able to earn his love; it is by his grace that we are forgiven every day for our sins. It is totally unfair for me to be so egotistical in that someone has to show that they are worthy of my love for me to open up and show kindness towards them. This little girl taught me that the weaker one is not the only person who needs love, we all do. All of us have a blemish of some sort that makes us different, and we are all called to love each other the same. It’s important to see people as Christ does no matter what the circumstances. All of us are full of flaws and we all deserve the love we are capable to give because of Him.
~mycah mcguire
