Things That Inspire

I felt inspired by a passion fruit this morning. We have a garden on our stone wall surrounding our house in Nairobi; passion fruit vines are growing on it. We took 124 passion fruit down to Milly today so she could include them in the lunch for our students, former street kids now in our "family" and education and skills training program at Kamulu. So I took one of them into chapel and talked to the kids about it after the first couple of songs (it's great to be back here singing with the kids -- that's inspiring in itself!).

I held up the passion fruit, and they told me what it was. I told them it is dark like them, but unlike them, it is kind of ugly, while they are beautiful. They laughed, and I shared with them that many American visitors have never seen passion fruit before, and when they look at the fruit, they doubt whether it will be any good.

I reminded them that they have had experiences like that, when nobody thought they were very good. They nodded their heads or said yes. They have had people shout at them, run them away, pour hot water on them, throw stones at them and abuse them in other ways when they were sleeping on the streets.

Then I told them the value of the passion fruit, that it makes everything else better. You mix it in with mango and strawberries and apples and oranges, and it adds a special flavor that is delightful. And I said, "You make my life better." And I told them that I believe they will make many other people better during their lives. Most of them will marry, and they will make husbands and wives into better people. They will help their employers to have a better life, and they will make fellow employees better. And they will make others in the church better.

They will do this because they love God, and because they love what is good. So I said to just keep on going the way they are going, and they are like the passion fruit, making life delightful in their own way.