Four Calling Birds

 Decembr 17.  Today's story about generosity is actually something that happened a few days ago.  I was working and doing a home visit to a woman who didn't speak English.  I had an interpreter with me to help me do the teaching and assessments I needed to do.  Part of the work involved asking this individual what her date of birth was and she gave it to me but proceeded to explain that it was really just a number.  I asked her to tell me more about that.  Well, she said, where she comes from, no one writes down when you are born.  You just are.  So the day is not known.  At some point if a day is needed by someone, which was the case for her, one is given to her.  I asked her if she got to pick the day and she said that no, it was chosen for her.  So, I asked, did someone just look at you and decide you looked about a certain age and just give you a date and she said....yes, pretty much.  

This is staying with me.  Initially it stuck with me in a sad way because noone made note of the day and time she was born, how much she weighed and if she was born early or overdue.....but that was the boldness of my culture getting in the way.  How do I know that no one made note of it?  Quite possibly the day she was born was a quiet, peaceful day at sunset, with the people who gave her life surrounding her and they wept and praised God for her when she entered the world....quite possibly it is written in the book of Life and the Keeper of that Book has a snapshot that will last for Eternity.  (My friend Arlene said once that she never took many pictures because she wanted to experience life first hand and not through a lens.  She was trusting God to bring those memories back to her in Heaven some day if she needed to revisit them.)  

Generosity frees us from being tethered to a set of numbers that does matter for a medical record, a school admission form, a set of expectations to act and develop and mature in a certain way and order....it frees me from agonizing about the management of time.  I am a slave to time.  I hate to be late, I am very time-oriented.  Deadlines matter to me.  Milestones and touchpoints and the appropriateness vs. deviatiations of them are the essence of my work with families and yet.....because of the point this woman brought forth, I may also let go of all of that when it doesn't really matter....when it actually is just a number and not necessary in the moment.  And so can you.  

We identified that this woman was experiencing significant nausea with her pregnancy and suggested she try dry saltine crackers first thing in the morning and throughout the day.  She nodded in agreement and said that someone had already told her to do that but she didn't know exactly what those were or where to find them so the translator and I smiled at one another and promised her we would get her those crackers.  Later in the day I had the crackers set out and the translator offered to pick them up on her way home and drop them off for me (because she is incredibly generous).  Suppertime came and went, as did the sunset, and at close to bedtime, headlights appeared in the driveway and there she was, my sweet co-worker, in the cold drizzly darkness, with her family in the car after running an errand to the store, picking up those crackers to drop off to that sweet lady with the churny pregnant stomach yet that day.   Generously giving of herself, as well as her family time, unconcerned that it was after work hours, because sometimes, the time of day and even the day itself are what matters least of all.....and what matters most is that a human being is seen and heard and known in the world.  

It's the fourth generous day of Christmas...The Twelve Days of Christmas are full of meaning historically.  The four calling birds are said to represent the four gospels....Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.  How cool is that!