When Samuel, a fourth grader, walked onto the stage at the end of the school year, I wished for drum roll, cymbals, and fireworks. Though there wasn’t even lukewarm applause as he received his perfect attendance award, his achievement was worthy of a standing ovation.
Samuel is one of seven children who look after themselves nights while their mom works at a chicken factory. He scrounges for clothes to wear and often doesn’t even have a pencil. Schoolwork does not come easy and he is too shy to ask for help. In February, his family moved out of their house after a fire.
For me, getting to school meant my parents, who did not work in a factory all night, woke me. They provided clean clothes and breakfast. If I missed the bus, my dad took me. We were never homeless from a fire.
Samuel humbled me. Every day he competed in the “Olympics” of hurdle-jumping to get to school. Every day—rain, shine … or fire—he made it.
God calls us to humbly look out for the interests of others, I believe, so that we can learn from them how to “make a way out of no way” through Jesus, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Prayer: Humble me, Almighty God, so I might look always up to Thee! In Jesus name. Amen.
Response: Whose interests can you look after today?
(Devotions from “Cross of Ashes” by Christine Weerts, a Lenten devotional provided by Lutheran Hour Ministries. Copyright 2005, Int’l LLL. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend.)