Can't seem to get it to go away...

Have you ever had an image in your mind that you just can't seem to get it to go away. Not that you don't like the image or not that you really truly want it to go away. It just seems to be there every time you close your eyes?

Well this is my image. This is what I keep seeing everytime I close my eyes.

This image is of some orphans in Uganda in one of 13 different villages I visited several years ago. I saw the same smiles, on the same faces with the same hands stretched out risking everything to be greeted and smiled at by a Muzungu (me, or a white person). The typical Muzungu just drove by in the Land Rovers on their way to Safari but this Muzungu stopped and cared and loved these children. It took everything within me not to take one or even all of these children home with me. It was even harder when they opened their mouths and praised our Lord with their sweet Angelic voices. Praising him for the blessings he bestowed on them, the meals he provided for them and the care that they had received. They praised him for the lives that they have had and how they knew that their parents who had died a year or even a month before were in the presence of their King and these children praised him for it.

All of the while this Muzungu couldn't get past that these children didn't have shoes, couldn't afford to go to school, didn't have dinner last night or breakfast this morning and yet they praised their Lord! They praised him with their voices, they praised him with their dances, they praised him as they wept for they knew they were saved!

Oh I pray that this Muzungu would one day praise the Lord the way they did that day! Praise him for the blessings he had given me, the life that I live because of him, or the people that I have gotten to know over my 34 years. That I would praise him just for loving me and for giving me the greatest gift of all and that is eternal life in heaven with him. I should praise him for the sacrifice that he made for me, praise him for loving me despite my shortcomings, praise him for blessing me each day with breath and people around me who love me. Let me dance for him and sing him praise, let me rejoice in knowing that this coming Sunday we celebrate that he conquered death for me! But not just for me but for you as well. So join with me and let us praise him together. We can sing, dance and rejoice in our Lord and Savior!