How good it is to be back in my mission home! This afternoon found me praying in the church, thanking Jesus for having brought me back to this place and these people who have captured my heart. After a while my silence was happily disturbed by four little girls who had come bearing flowers to offer to Mama Mary.
"Ate Rebecca!" I have a terrible memory for names, especially with so many children in town, but I recognized the girls from last year and was glad to see them again. I watched as they placed their freshly-picked flowers around the Nativity creche with such care and intention. They weren't escorted by parents -- this was no forced devotion. They had come freely, in their love for Jesus and His Mother.
They ambled around the sanctuary for a few minutes, stopping to pray beneath the crucifix and a moment later giggling as they took turns standing behind the pulpit. I marveled at how much God's house is a home to them, and how they could at once display both reverence and the total comfort and relaxed joy that you would expect of children playing in their parents' home. It reminded me of when the child Jesus is lost in the temple; He responds to the Blessed Mother's queries: "How is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father's house?" (Luke 2:49)
As I finished my prayer time, kneeling and raising my hands in praise of Him Who made me, I heard the tittering of quiet laughter. The girls had settled into the pew behind me. I opened my eyes to see the sun casting shadows on the stone floor in front of me -- my own large shadow and on either side matching smaller ones. Two of the girls were imitating me with their hands raised in the air, and they evidently found it funny. I laughed a little along with them. Sometimes the job of a missionary is so simple. Do you love Jesus? Are you not ashamed to let it show to everyone around you? Then you, too, can be a missionary.
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