I thought the genesis of this undertaking might be worth exploring. Several years ago, in an attempt to re-focus the kids' Christmas expectations, we started a family Advent activity called "God's Helping Hands." Armed with my glue gun (I LOVE to glue gun stuff, by the way. It is about as cathartic for me as writing this blog!) I glued 12 knit holiday gloves to a wreath and slapped a seasonal bow on it — emphatically, of course, with a sizzling glob of my glue gun's greatest goo. In each glove I inserted a secret treat — a push pop, chocolate, a Bakugan ball, an eraser, things the kids love to hoard during the holidays.
Each night before dinner, Ben and Marley were expected to share something they did that day for someone else. They had to look for ways to be "God's Helping Hands." It was my attempt to put good-deed-doing on the brain. Think of others, get a treat.
The premise of "Helping Hands"is always exciting for them. They love admiring the straw, country-crafty wreath. They sneak squeezes trying to figure out which glove contains the most promising loot. But sadly, this is where the lesson often ends. Instead of being conscious each day of ways they can meet another's needs, they re-hash some low-hanging fruit. "Oh, let's see, well I waited for Riley in class today while he picked up his papers off the floor," Ben smirks as he points to one of the fuller gloves. "And I ate the three more bites of rice like you asked me to do, Mama," says Marley, hopeful.
I hardly blame them. It is really hard to deliberately seek ways to serve others in small ways. I play "God's Helping Hands" every Christmas. And every night I sit there in a panic trying to think of something, anything I did for someone else that day.
How pitiful! But the notion that it is so hard makes me think it's just not human nature. Could that be? I mean, some humans may have superhuman DNA...tiger blood...or Adonis DNA...
..but does human DNA lack, or have a very short supply of, "unto others" DNA?
I hope this experiment yields a different conclusion. A friend who has absolutely no shortage of "do unto other" DNA wrote me yesterday with a great perspective. This friend, who has spent the past several years with her husband and five children in Africa as a missionary — and before that Dominican Republic — has made a career of doing unto others. She reminded me of this verse from Matthew, and followed up with her own explanation:
"I was hungry, and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home...when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me." Matthew 25:35,40
We must be willing and ready to adjust our lives for someone else, she said. Adjust our schedules and routines, adjust our giving practices, adjust our thoughts. Adjust our hopes and dreams in a moment, in a second. Why? This is one of the ways we can love God back. I'm sure it makes him so happy and feeling loved!
Maybe if looking out for everyone else isn't in our DNA, or if it's there but in limited quantity, we have to adjust. Adjust, and love God back. I like that.
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