There is a place in Houston, in the
3rd ward to be exact, where miracles happen every day. I wouldn’t
have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. God is working at a
little school called Generation One. I’ve had the privilege to be part of a
group that provided lunch for these kiddos and the staff every Friday for 6
weeks. It is a small, peripheral role, but I really thought I would be helping
and blessing these kids even with this limited involvement. But as often
happens with these things, I was totally wrong. In doing nothing but walking
in, saying hi and delivering sack lunches, I was helped and blessed more than I
could ever give back. It all started when a friend of mine decided that she
could get together a bunch of women out here in Katy, TX, and provide lunch for
this small Christian school. In doing so it frees up a chunk of the school’s
budget and makes a place for a few more kids. Gives a few families a little
more hope for the future of their children.
On the second to last week my group
decided to do a hot lunch. It was nothing fancy, baked macaroni and cheese (recipe
courtesy of the Pioneer Woman – thanks, Ree), baby carrots, homemade bread, and
juice boxes. My friend and I headed down to Generation One armed with what we
thought was plenty of food to feed about 56 hungry mouths. Ya’ll should know
that I’m a worrier by nature. Each week I count and recount lunches and check
and re-check names against the roster. The minute we unloaded the food in the
kitchen and started heating, I looked around and knew we didn’t have enough. It
just wasn’t as much as I thought it would be.
As my friend Shannon drove the first set of lunches over the building
that housed Kindergarten and 1st grade, I was near tears in the
kitchen praying. In this neighborhood there isn’t a drive thru you can run to
and pick up extra lunches. There isn’t even a grocery store. If we didn’t have
enough, it would be disastrous. We could go get more food, but someone would be
eating late after we’d had to drive down the highway, and it would be obvious
that someone got left out.
About that time a staff member came
over and had a request. There was a small business meeting at 11:30; could we
make 5 extra plates? In despair I knew there was no way we had five extra
plates, but I didn’t have the heart to say no, so I said yes and prayed this
would somehow work out. I don’t think I’ve ever chanted “loaves and fishes God,
please just give me loaves and fishes” with that much fervency. I’m sure you
can guess what happened next. We filled every plate for every class, every
teacher, and every staff member. I looked up and we had a half a loaf of bread
left and a half a tray of macaroni – just enough for 5 extra plates. And as it
so happened, I had just enough extra scripture verse cards that each plate also
carried a “love note” from us (what the kids call the daily scripture they get
in their lunches). But God didn’t even stop there – there was enough bread for
everybody in the meeting to have not one, but two slices of homemade bread. I
had been the most worried about the bread, because I made it, and I was
terrified my offering would fall short. What kind of God pays attention to
those kinds of details?
Miracles – they happen.
As we were finishing up plating a
young man I’d seen walking around the school came in with one of the school leaders.
When I say young man I mean he couldn’t have been more than 17. I assumed he
volunteered there, worked there, was delivering something, etc. But no, he was
introduced to us as the father of a precious little girl in the preschool
class. He had come to the school to conference with the staff because he was
worried about his daughter and wanted to know how he could help her with her
schooling at home. He wanted to know how he could be more involved. Here’s a boy,
no more than a kid himself, who lives in a neighborhood with very little hope
and desperate poverty, and he’s showing up to be a dad to his little girl. It
made me wonder if I could be so strong in the midst of such circumstances. What kind of resolve does it take to be a
responsible, 17 year old dad in a neighborhood where such a thing may not
always be valued? I have prayed for that young father every day since. He
looked at our plates and asked what we were making. When I said mac and cheese
his eyes lit up. Doesn’t mac and cheese affect everyone that way? There’s just
something good about it. We offered
him a plate, because of course, no surprise by now, we had enough for one more.
I don’t know if he took it after we left, I hope he did. If anyone deserves a
hot lunch made with love, that young man did.
Miracles – they happen.
I tell you this story to remind you
of a few things. God is alive in our world. He’s working hard in places we
never see. Every time I leave Generation One I feel unworthy. I couldn’t figure
out exactly where that feeling came from, until a friend of mine explained it –
because that’s where Jesus is. In a small school, in a poverty-stricken
neighborhood, I’ve been in the presence of Jesus. I am unworthy to be there,
but by his grace I can be. I can be blessed by more thank you’s and Velcro hugs
and delighted smiles from children than any one person deserves.
Second, as you celebrate
Thanksgiving this week, give thanks for this moment, right now, and let go of
your worries, even if just for a day. Don’t think of what you will buy at black
Friday. Don’t worry about what Santa will bring. For your life just give
thanks. We have so much. We have no idea what poverty is. We have no idea what
goes on in the corners of the world, even in our very community. Until we see
it, we sometimes can miss the light God is shining in those corners. The light
he wants to shine on us if we but give him the chance. So don’t worry about
tomorrow, just live today and every day in gratitude that there is a loving
Father who makes sure everyone has a plate and a place at the table. If you get
a chance, give something to someone else. It really is in giving it away that
the biggest blessings come.
And even if your table is not the
turkey feast that many of us associate with Thanksgiving, even if you have
nothing but simple fare, give thanks. Because I’m here to tell you, God can do
some amazing miracles with nothing more than mac and cheese.
"People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” Luke 13:29-30
If you'd like to learn more about or support Generation One, please go to https://www.generationone.net/donate. Or if you're in the Houston area and would like a tour or would like to get involved in the lunch program, please contact me. We would love to have you. :)
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