A precious heart

I love the photo that I chose as the front page for this blog. Not because of the part with me in it, but because it captures the beautiful smile of one of the most precious children I have ever met. His is the kind of smile that makes you feel good when you see it, no matter what kind of day you are having or mood you are in. The kind of smile that you can't help but smile back at. The kind of smile that radiates from a pure and noble heart. I met this little fellow (whose name I will keep out of these posts for privacy sake--as a matter of fact, that will be true for all the children I may write about here) last year, shortly after he came to live at Agape Home. It was the smile that instantly drew me---that and his natural warmth and personality. He is, in fact, a bit of a magnet! Tomorrow is his birthday. When you see that smile, you would not know the grown-up things he has already had to deal with at his tender young age. Like how he cared faithfully for his mother at the local government hospital during her final illness, and how sometimes that beautiful smile is replaced with a cry of deep grief at her loss. Or how he struggles himself with fragile health, and a body that does not always work the way it should. Still in all, he handles these things with a grace and courage that I don't believe I could muster if given the same circumstances. He does it, I think, out of a reservoir of love poured into him by his mother, and from a deep faith that she also modeled for him, and taught him to embrace. The fact that he is able to transmit that love and faith so naturally into the lives he touches is nothing short of beautiful.