From Melinda Wallace Nelson

Shall we dance?

 

Or

Thanksgiving Chutzpah

 

 

Anna Cinquenta Machava Fernandez.  I will never forget her.  Even without the impressive name, she will forever and indelibly be stamped on my heart.  Besides the fact that she is a living miracle, having lived double the distance at which most Mozambicans die (40 years being the average age of death …making me a senior citizen in their midst), Anna had ‘chutzpah.’ 

 

I met Anna Cinquenta Machava Fernandez (and that is indeed how she introduced herself to me) while I was roaming the streets of Mozambique looking for streetkids, prostitutes and the homeless.  I was searching for the downtrodden and downcast because though I don’t savor suffering, I do love Jesus, and He tells me to, “Remember those who are suffering as if you were suffering with them yourself”(Hebrews 13:3).  So while I pursued the poor as I believed Jesus would, I bumped into Anna.

 

Wow! What a woman!  Blind, crippled, widowed, and having lost two sons in the war…I would have expected sadness and/or self-pity to seep from her pores, posture, mouth….  Instead, I found one of the most joyous women on planet earth.  Oh yes, I forgot to tell you that she was homeless too and living in what was then the poorest country in the entire world. And as if all that wasn’t enough, this woman was led around the city like a tethered animal, a dignity-destroyer for sure.  (Her one remaining living son had tied a rope from her wrist to his waist, so in her blindness, they wouldn’t get separated.)

 

But why no Eyore embodiment?  After all, this woman had every excuse to pull a ‘Job’s wife attitude’ and ‘Curse God and die.’  But do you know what she did instead?  She got up and danced and worshipped Jesus!  In fact, not only did she lift herself up from the dirty garbage-laden street she was sitting and sleeping on, but she practically shamed Tigger in the exuberant bounce that lifted her from street to feet.

 

I have a feeling Anna would have no clue how to relate to Alexander, the children’s book star who wanted to go to Australia because some days could be ‘terrible, horrible, very bad no good days’.  Of course, I would have no clue as well, since Alexander is a fictional character, but you do get my point, don’t you?  For Anna is not fictional.  And though many would say Anna Cinquenta Machava Fernandez isn’t much to look at, she literally takes my breath away.  Why?  Because she is a living breathing example of the grace and glory of God in a human.  And rather than reflecting Eyore, she boldly and unashamedly reflects Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”

 

I do believe we all can find abundant reasons to be grateful for the life we have, no matter what personal disappointments, struggles and challenges we face.    This Thanksgiving, let us be thankful, though our lives are far from perfect, because perfection came to us.  Emmanual: God with us.

 

God with us… in our troubles, our broken dreams, our hardships.  God is indeed with us, and that is why Anna dances. I figure if Anna can dance, anyone can.  Shall we dance?

 

Love,     

   Melinda and David

 

 

 

 THANKSGIVING

 

                               If you have food in your refrigerator,

                                clothes on your back, a roof over

                                your head and a place to sleep,

                                you are richer than 75% of this world.

 

                                If you have money in the bank,

                                in your wallet, and spare change

                                in a dish someplace, you are among

                                the top 8% of the world's wealthy.

 

                                If you woke up this morning

                                with more health than illness,

                                you are more blessed than the

                                million who won't survive the week.

 

 

                                If you have never experienced

                                the danger of battle,

                                the loneliness of imprisonment,

                                the agony of torture or

                                the pangs of starvation,

                                you are ahead of 200 million people

                                around the world.

 

                                If you attend a church meeting

                                without fear of harassment,

                                arrest, torture, or death,

                                you are more blessed than almost

                                three billion people in the world

                       

                                If you hold up your head with a smile

                                on your face and are truly thankful,

                                you are blessed because the majority can,

                                but most do not.

 

                                If you can hold someone's hand, hug them

                                or even touch them on the shoulder,

                                you are blessed because you can

                                offer God's healing touch.

 

                                If you can read this message,

                                you are more blessed than over

                                two billion people in the world

                                that cannot read anything at all.

 

                                You are so blessed in ways

                                you may never even know.

 

"In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

I Thessalonians 5:18

 

(Note:  It does not say

‘For everything…’, but ‘In everything….”)

 

 

Blessings,
Jackie
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