This Man

This man right here, he's my favorite. Tonight he reminded me why. 

 

You see, I had a rough day.  It started off with an e-mail that bothered me far more than it should have.  I struggled all morning long to stop tears.  I would get it together, get started on a task, play through the e-mail in my mind, and lose it again.  It was ridiculous. 

 

I mean literally, I'm trying to read about the Ancient Romans to the kids and the tears are streaming down my cheeks, for like the 20th time that morning.   I asked them to excuse me and work independently.  I walk up to the house, thinking that I'll just lay down on my bed for 5 minutes, pray a bit, and get myself together.  But, when I get up to the house, Naomi is in the middle of mopping my bedroom and I don't even have a place to melt down when I need it. 

 

I made it through the morning and ate a quick lunch, but then I had to head to the guest house.  I knew I was facing another difficult conversation there, which definitely had the potential to be emotional on any normal day, but today, it was like a time bomb. 

 

After it was over, I called this man and said, "I just want to come home.  There is so much work to do and I should stay and do it, but I just want to come home.  I want to get in the car, drive to a restaurant, and eat food I didn't cook on dishes that I won't have to wash." 

 

He told me to get in the car and come home.  And, I did.  Then, he drove through an insane amount of traffic to eat roasted chicken that we didn't cook and that we didn't have to clean up...on a weeknight... which we RARELY do in Africa.  When we arrived, I ordered a Coke.  Which I really, really wanted.  I have been limiting my sodas, but today was a Coke kinda day (really it was a TWO Coke kinda day, but I have my boundaries!)

 

Five minutes after ordering, the waitress says, "We have no Coke.  You will have Fanta or Sprite."  This is common here.  It is unusual to order at a restaurant and find they actually have everything that you requested.  But, today was not a Fanta or Sprite kind of day for me.   No, it was a "Real Thing" kind of day.  It was not a "we don't have what you want" kind of day for me either. 

 

Before I could stop them, the tears formed in the corner of my eyes.  I was thinking through my options.  And, before I could even formulate a proper response, this man, this water drinking, Coke hating man, stands up and says, "I'm going to find some Coke."  Out the door he waltzes with Lizzie in tow.  Five minutes later, they return with five cold bottles of coke they bought from a lady on a nearby street.  The Coke was good, but the act of love was better.  I felt valued, which was exactly what I needed to feel at that point.

 

That's really all I wanted to say, that I have a really, really great husband.  But, before I go,  I think you might appreciate this vignette.  We traveled home from the restaurant on a road that was pretty much stop and go traffic.  As often happens at this time of day on busy roads in our city, we were approached by multiple beggars.  We keep coins in our van that we hand out to folks who either have obvious physical deformities or to whom the Holy Spirit prompts us to give to.  We don't generally give money to children, for a variety of reasons which I won't explain here, but we do sometimes give them food.  By the time we got to the last light on that road, we'd rolled the window down and handed out several coins on our journey home.  However, at this light was a little boy who kept touching his mouth like he wanted something to eat, which is a common gesture here.  Abby immediately remembered that we had a bag of  leftover chicken strips from our meal that we had thought we might use for our lunch tomorrow.  She asked if she could give them to the boy and, after getting permission, handed them out the window.  The boy peeked in the bag, smelled it, and then his eyes lit up.  He was grinning from ear to ear and saying, in his sweet little accent, "Thank you, thank you, this is the first meal I've had in a very long time."  All the while he was blowing kisses at our van.  Abe meanwhile, was in shock that we had given away ALL his chicken strips.  He had big tears in his eyes.  This gave us the chance to talk about blessing others, having all we need, and the likewise.  I'm not sure he bought it, but I am sure he won't go hungry tomorrow!