Rinse and Repeat.
This morning, we had the opportunity to go with the Pilas students on their service project. The activity was to do a shampoo treatment for lice in one of the villages where they run their youth group. Now, as many of you know, I am not a big fan of insects or bugs at all. So the night before, our team was talking about how we would need gloves to catch the lice and some larger bugs that might come out. As we were setting up, our team passed out our disposable gloves, but then we saw the Pilas students just starting the treatments without any kind of protection at all. Although I didn’t directly ask them about whether or not they wanted gloves, the sense I got from them was this: these are my people, why would I need to be protected from them?
For me, seeing these students use their hands to touch the hair and comb out the lice was inspiring. It was inspiring because they cared more about the dignity of the youth rather than their own protection. I’m sure at times they were probably a little grossed out yet they didn’t see these youth as the “other.” Instead, they saw them like Jesus would, “as one of their own.” And if these youth really were one of them, how would they want to be treated?
It reminded me of the story where Jesus touched the woman who had been bleeding for years. This woman was presumably unclean and anyone she touched would be unclean. Yet, Jesus doesn’t yell or run away from her; instead, He heals her. Jesus doesn’t shy away because He sees her as one of His own. I wonder what it means for me to expand my circle of who I see as God’s people. Is it just the people that I like? The people that are friendly to me or respond to what I do in a positive way? What about the people who are isolated, who are unlikeable, who are seemingly useless? It’s interesting that when we start to live out God’s mission, our definition of who we think of as God’s people quickly expands in ways that are so uncomfortable, the only way you are able to love them is through God.