There is a children’s
book by Shel Silverstein called, The
Giving Tree. In this story generosity is shown as over and over as an apple
tree gives, and gives, and gives of itself to the little boy it loves.
Lucia and I were
teaching our little students at Del Norte children’s home about true generosity
through this story. When we had finished our lesson, we passed out red
construction-paper apples for the kids to decorate with ways they could be generous
to others.
I have no idea what suddenly came upon
eight-year-old Josué in this moment. He went from a laughing, good-natured boy to an obstinate,
negative soul in literally one second. Josué stood up with a hardened frown on
his face and announced that he thought the activity was stupid and he just
wasn’t going to do it. We talked with him nicely and then firmly and still he
didn’t budge. One of our rules at the library is that if you come to class, you
must participate in all the activities, not just the ones you favor. Josué was
reminded about this rule, but his countenance and opposition did not change.
 |
| Josue |
Josué spent the next
twenty minutes under the teacher desk ripping his paper apple to shreds. Lucia
and I ignored his behavior and attended to the other students. I have to admit,
I was not feeling very generous toward Josué in this moment. Unlike the tree we
had just read about, I was about ready to take back everything I had ever given
Josué and make him leave the library! This was not the first time Josué had
been a challenge to me. There had been several other days when I asked him to
leave the library because of his behavior. He usually left while laughing
mockingly at me, no sense of remorse for the chaos he had caused.
 |
| Our reading circle at the library |
 |
| Our library "Giving Tree" |
As the students finished
the activity and began perusing books, I felt a slight tug on my shirt. I
turned to see Josué with The Giving Tree
in his hand. “Can we read this together?” he asked, once again a happy boy.
Speechless, the anger shocked out of me, I nodded a “yes.” We sat on the floor
and opened the cover. Page after page we read together the story of the
Christ-like tree. I turned the last page, closed the cover, and much to my
surprise, Josué asked for another paper apple. I watched quietly, as with a
tinge of embarrassment Josué wrote on his apple, “I love you. Forgive me for
what I have done.”
 |
| Josue's apple |
Never in my life did I
expect to see those words written out on Josué’s apple. After months of giving,
coaching, disciplining, loving, and teaching these kids, we were finally seeing
some return… and from the least likely of all. Josué stood up and took his
apple over to Lucia to ask her forgiveness as well. I overheard Lucia telling
him that he didn’t need to ask forgiveness for himself, but for his behavior.
“Love,” she said, “God has made you a very wonderful boy and He wants your
behavior to reflect that.” Josué turned toward her and asked, “Why do you call
me ‘love’?” Lucia, swooped him up in a big bear hug and said, “Because YOU ARE
LOVED!!!”
Despite the day-in and
day-out trials, God’s love is seeping into these little hearts. He is slowly
removing abused hearts of stone, and replacing them with hearts of flesh. This
day, for the first time, we saw that Josué’s heart was beginning to warm and
the first layer of stone was cracking off.
