His name was David Gonzales. He was one of my tutoring projects at the Rio Grande Children's Home during our first year of serving with RVICS (Roving Volunteers in Christ's Service). Through him, God wrote a memorable lesson in the textbook of my heart.
David had been found living in the corner of a hallway in a Reynosa tenement house, where his older sister was trying desperately to care for him. They were now comfortable and cared for in one of the cottages at the children's home. Though his house mother sent him off each morning clean and shining, rested and fed, and ready for the school day -- by the time he reached school his shirt tail was out, his hair was a tangled mop, and his smudged face showed he was ready for a fight at the slightest provocation. But the thing I noticed most about David was the constant look of defeat in his eyes. I was assigned to work with him on spelling and math skills, but, truly, according to "David's Law," EVERY area of school and life brought failure.
Valentine's Day was approaching, and the senior class came up with a fantastic idea for a money-maker to help raise funds for their senior class trip: The house mothers would help them bake giant, heart-shaped chocolate chip cookies to be sold and delivered, with some romantic message, on Valentine's Day. (The ingredients were donated by a local bakery.)
Senior boys ordered them for their sweethearts, classes for their teachers, and those "push-overs," the RVICS men, for their wives.
On Valentine's Day, excitement was high, as the gigantic cookies were delivered -- each one with a romantic poem or song, performed by the senior deliverer. I was helping in the 3rd grade classroom when a senior girl slipped in the door with cookies to deliver. The children giggled with excitement, as she sang their song and delivered the cookie THEY had bought for their beloved teacher. Then, unbelievably, she placed the second cookie on David's desk, with a quiet little poem. At first, he was afraid to look at it. Every eye in the room was on him. He inspected the wrapping carefully to be sure it really had HIS name on it. He looked up at me with a question in his eyes -- but I was not the one who had sent this lovely surprise. He lifted the cookie slightly, and pulled out a small slip of paper, then motioned for me to come and see.
As I leaned over his desk, he whispered, "It's from my sister! My sister sent me a Valentine cookie....." and the defeated eyes were shining.
When the children gave their puppet show for the Kindergartners that afternoon, though David's paper mache puppet was rather shapeless and the paint had run, he spoke much more confidently than before, and his head was up, rather than down, with his chin in its usual position on his chest. And he didn't get ALL the words on his spelling test right, but he missed only a few. But, miracle of miracles, when the recess bell rang, and the children started out the door, I heard a sound that will warm my heart forever -- a sound I had never heard in the weeks I had worked with David. I heard David Gonzales LAUGHING.
It was such a little thing -- just a chocolate chip cookie. But his sister's loving surprise had shattered the wall of defeat that bound him. It had touched him -- transformed him. All the discouraging circumstances of his life had faded in the light of that wonderful love.
The Gospel writers tell the story of a woman who entered the place where Jesus was, carrying an alabaster flask of very expensive perfume. She broke it and, in an extravagant gesture of love, poured it on Jesus' head. Though the disciples rebuked her for such waste, Jesus did not rebuke her. He simply said, "She did what she could." I can't help but believe that the fragrance of her gift followed him all the way to the cross.
Mark 14: 6-8 - She has done a beautiful thing to me.... She did what she could.
David's sister "did what she could," and it changed a small boy's day, and, perhaps, his life. God has given each of us an alabaster flask, filled with the precious perfume of simple kindness. If we but ask God to open our eyes to every opportunity, we too can touch another's heart in a life-changing way. Our Lord reminds us that, "...whatever you do for one of the least of these ... you do for Me (Matthew 25:40)."
So -- take up your alabaster flask, break it, pour it out, and bless someone's day, whether your flask contains a costly perfume, an encouraging word, or just a chocolate chip cookie.
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