The other day when we visited our Kibera Kids Center, we took a tour of the new second floor of the school. It was paid for by one of our donors. I was in one of the classrooms and on the blackboard were the words of a song written by someone who lived in the slums. The words grabbed me so I stood there wanting to absorb them into my mind. Just then sweet Lyidiah Idagiza, the head teacher, came up behind me and said; “Do you know the words to this song?” Without stopping she began to sing them. The sound of her voice echoed through the whole school like the voice of someone crying out to God. Here are the words:
While the world looks upon me; As I struggle along,
They say I have nothing, but they are so wrong
In my heart am rejoicing, how I wish they could see
Thank you Lord for your blessings on me
There is a roof up above me; I have a good place to sleep
There is food on my table and shoes on my feet
You gave me your love Lord and a fine family,
Thank You Lord for your blessings on me.
I know I’m not wealthy and these clothes are not new
I don’t have much money, but Lord I have you
And that’s all that matters, though the world may not see
Thank you Lord for your blessings on me
As Lydia sang these words, those of us who were standing around her began to cry; and it wasn’t just Corbett and Bob either, who, as we know, are notorious cry babies! All of us were wiping our eyes having been deeply touched by the words. If this song had been sung back home in our comfortable affluent world it wouldn’t have meant much, but here, smack in the middle of the Kibera Slums the reality of these words were unbelievably powerful. We think that being rich means we have a lot of stuff, but being truly rich is to know Jesus and to inherit “the riches of God in Christ Jesus.” These riches can’t be bought with money, they are the riches of love and wisdom and grace and mercy and joy and honor and integrity and peace and righteousness and endurance and patience and faith and eternal life!
It is so touching to meet a poor person who possesses such riches and it’s humbling to know that sometimes a rich person has none of these.
Definitely something to think about and a good thing to read to our kids.
It’s all about perspective!
