Putting a Smile on God's Face

“I’m happy that you and Violetta are getting to be good friends.” Mrs. Meds (the Principal) said as we were heading to joint worship.

“I discovered that our cultures are really close and warm. We ask about each other and we take time to talk about our day and how it’s been.” Violetta replied with a smile on her face. “Sometimes I just wish I can tell people to wait and give me time to reply when they ask how I’m doing. I don’t want to say, “good” when I’m not good, or when I even have more to share.” She continued.

I’ve been thinking for a while about what Violetta said. Am I really willing to take time to listen to others when I ask the common question, “ How are you?” I was also thinking about my devotions and I realized that my daily routine is to tell God what is happening in my life, how I’m feeling, how my classes are going, and things I need His help with. “Do I take time to ask God how He is doing?” the thought came to my mind. “ I think I should. Well, if we have a relationship, I think it’s important to know how He is doing.” I thought as I was laughing quietly. Weird, ha? Well, I did ask Him and gave myself some quite time to hear his response. I could imagine God answering something like this, “Well, Some of my children are bringing big smiles to my face by caring, loving, and serving other children of mine. They just make me happy by acting like my Son Jesus. But it hurts me to see some of my children destroying and hurting their brothers/sisters. I just feel sad when I see my children living opposite of what I created them to be.  It breaks my heart to see my children living a selfish life when I created them to be totally selfless.”

Yesterday, Tuesday, was the SM’s town-day. We had work up until lunchtime and all the rest of our afternoon was off. Violetta’s friend came from Ukraine with her husband on a business trip for about a week. Violetta had planned to pick up her friend from the hotel and spend some time with her along with the SMs.  When she asked Thomas ( one of the returned SMs this year) if he is ready to drive us there, he said that he was sick and needed the afternoon to sleep. Everyone else did not feel comfortable driving in the crazy roads of Kenya.  We asked if we could use public transportation but we discovered that we could not because we were going to bring a big box about 10Kg back with us. That left no other option for us. We could not go any other day because we had to work. When Thomas saw that we had no other option he decided to drive us there. Even though he was sick and needed to rest, he decided gave part of his afternoon up to help us get to Nairobi. Not only that, we even got tuck in traffic and ended up talking the whole afternoon driving. Thomas gladly drove us to Nairobi and back to the school. What a selfless act! That is something that Jesus would do if He was in this situation. I can imagine Thomas putting a big smile on God’s face by doing that.

At the end of my devotions I was thinking of my own life and how I live everyday. “Do I put a smile on God’s face or take it away? I know that I want to make Him happy all the time; but I also know that I disappoint Him sometimes” I thought.  Well, good thing God knows that I am a human being and that I am weak. I know that I cannot do it on my own, but I know that He is there to give me strength. “ He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” Isaiah 40: 29. I need God’s help, every single day, to teach me how to be more and more like Jesus so I can put a big smile on all the days of my life.