A pencil...

The pencil....

I received a photo yesterday of a child holding two pencils...it was one of those photos that hits you in your gut...

I can go to the dollar store, the office supply store, the grocery store,  even the hardware store and buy pencils, pens by the "bushels"....and here was a child holding his prize pencil of one inch next to his brand new pencil....oh, I am so callous with my drawers of pencils and pens, my abundance in a world of need...I take for granted so many things in life...little things like a pencil...

The accompanying picture was the "library" for the child with the new pencil. The  "library" was a tree with children sitting around on dry, red earth...heads bent, devouring little books accumulated from wherever in their brightly colored cotton shirts and shorts somewhere in Zambia....such a contrast to the abundance of books in my own home, let alone the vast libraries we have in our towns or even the bookstores, the grocery stores or the thrift stores, online ....million of books waiting to be devoured with such enthusiasm ...or reading them in the comfort of a Lazyboy chair or desktop computer or curled in bed or a patio chaise lounge on a patio in comfort...

Such contrasts....Jesus said in Matthew 26:11 "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. " NIV. Basically, there will always be the poor...there will always be the contrasts...but there are times when the contrasts are so stark...so revealing...

What will this child write with this new pencil? Will he pen a great poem, write a letter that's transforms his life, Learn a new math structure, draw a picture for his home...

And here I am writing on an electronic device with no pencil in hand ...what power we both have to encourage, to tear down, with the figures we put to "paper"... Are we using it to the best of our ability ?
Am We doing enough? The best? To what we are called?   For the price of a pencil.....a book...

Thank YOU for the reminder of the simple things that mean so much...let me not take for granted the abundance you have bestowed....help me to be a good steward...no matter where in the small or large.....

Luke 16:10-12 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.
So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own? NIV