A generous blessing

The past few weeks we have been painting pumpkins and creating traditions with our Kids Hope kids in the classroom. Two weeks ago "J", a little kindergartener in Foster Care, gave his beloved and bright colored pumpkin to a 6th grader. A free gift of his hard work. He was beaming. 
The next week "E" the 6th grader who received "Js" gift with joy, worked the whole hour creating a cartoon face on her pumpkin. She too knows the pain and separation of Foster Care. She too, in a generous move given freely by someone who knows what it means to lose everything, gave her pumpkin to "J". The two embraced, smiling widely, showing all of us "church people" what the Kingdom of God looks like. 

"Those who are marginal in the world are central in the Church, and that is how it is supposed to be! Thus we are called as members of the Church to keep going to the margins of our society. The homeless, the starving, parentless children, people with AIDS, our emotionally disturbed brothers and sisters - they require our first attention.

We can trust that when we reach out with all our energy to the margins of our society we will discover that petty disagreements, fruitless debates, and paralysing rivalries will recede and gradually vanish. The Church will always be renewed when our attention shifts from ourselves to those who need our care. The blessing of Jesus always comes to us through the poor. The most remarkable experience of those who work with the poor is that, in the end, the poor give more than they receive. They give food to us."

- Henri Nouwen