Role models Watoto style

Today my head is spinning with the words of the songs and speeches of the Watoto choir performance and my heart is full of having a wonderful Ugandan man Richard in our home with three young boys….they were far more a blessing to us than we could ever be to them. So I’m trying to unpack all the encouragements and challenges that they brought to us – therefore excuse me if their stories are woven into this post today.

There is a famine in the land for three successive years….so what does David do? He ‘seeks the face of the Lord’. He doesn’t try to solve it himself or look for someone to blame. He turns to God first. Last night we were encouraged to remember ‘In the beginning, God…..’ Whatever we are going through, God is the place to start. You could see it on the face of every young person there – whatever atrocities they had seen and lived through, they had each found a way to turn to God and trust him for his provision and protection and love.

In this story, God makes it clear that the famines are due to Saul’s disobedience in attacking the Gibeonites and the agreed settlement is the lives of seven of Saul’s descendants…..this seems barbaric but it is measured and reasoned and controlled and avoids any escalation of violence. It is the outworking of ‘an eye for an eye’ – and no more. It is not uncontrolled revenge.

And when Rizpah, mother of two of the men killed, sets the example of protecting the bones of her beloved sons, David responds by retrieving the bones of Saul and his son Jonathan and giving them an appropriate burial. Because sometimes fantastic role models come from the most unlikely of places. I will never forget the shining face of 8 year old Luca as he worshipped God last night. It was a wonderful example of how to come before the living loving God.  Another lady whispered to me ‘Don’t you just wish you could take him home with you?’ And I was able to say ‘Actually I am. He is sleeping at my house tonight.’

And when everything is set right, then God can respond to the cries of his people –

After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land.  2 Samuel 21:14

The next section is revealing. David and his men are fighting the Philistines. Remember David and Goliath? Neither side would forget David’s heroics that day. But now he is tired. Now he is older. Now one of his men has to step in to prevent him from being killed. Now his people urge him to never enter into a battle again. They cannot risk losing him. His time for heroics are over.

Ageing is hard. Accepting that we are ageing is a struggle. Facing up to the fact that our bodies and minds are not what they once were is tough. Don’t get me wrong – I actually think some people allow themselves to age too quickly – like some of my friends who are much younger than me who say they are too old to run or camp or have fun! Age is just a number – but it is a relevant number – and we have to allow each other to age. Looking older is nothing to be embarrassed about. Allowing other people to help you is nothing to be ashamed of. We each have to model how to embrace the ageing of others and our own ageing – and yes, we can still run and throw ourselves into the North Sea and stay up until dawn and live life to the full! It’s a reality but it is not a humiliation.

So when a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot – a Philistine giant – steps forward, it is David’s nephew who slays him. The next generation will step up if we prepare them to.

And if we are prepared to let them.

Ageing is weird. I still feel like a young person inside. And then sometimes I get a glimpse of how I must appear to someone in their twenties. It shocks me. I realise that they are the ones with all the potential and vision and ideas and ideals. They are the ones I need to be encouraging and empowering.

I can still have my fun and embrace my creativity but I have to make room for younger people to step up too. Over the last couple of days, Richard has been a real encouragement to Andy and me. He has a genuine heart for every member of every family that he stays with. He made every individual in my family feel appreciated and valued. He saw the best in each one of us and prayed for that to find a way to express itself. It’s a long time since anyone has prayed with us as a family like Richard and his boys did. He’s a young man with wisdom and love and hope shining out of him. It was a privilege to welcome him into our home – even now I am absolutely shattered and could sleep for a week – see, I’m not as young as I was!!!!