A good friend of mine, who now lives and works in Nicaragua, tells this wonderful story of one of her first trips to that country. I may get a few of the details wrong, but as is the case with all good stories it doesn’t make the story less true.
Bonnie was with a group of people from various parts of the United States that spent a week living and working in the community of Tierra Colorada. During the day the group worked with community members to help dig a well so the community would have fresh drinking water for the very first time. In the evening they would relax and talk with each other and with community members who would stop by. On one of the evenings, Bonnie got out some paper and a box of crayons that she had brought so she could color with the children. The children who gathered around her that evening had never seen crayons before and carefully picked the crayons up one at a time to look at them and to use them, and then carefully put each crayon back in the box before choosing another. At the end of the evening, one of the little boys asked if he could take a crayon home so he could show his parents something so wonderful.
That evening…
Those children…
That experience, Bonnie says,
“Turned her world right side up.”
I found myself thinking about that story today as I decompress from the energy and excitement of Christmas.
How much of our own world and the world in which we live is, in fact, upside down?
And, maybe there is…
Or, should be…
Something about Christmas…
That turns our world right side up.
P.S. For those of you who read my blog, if there is something you would like me to write about please let me know or if there is a question you would like to ask please feel free to do so.