Sharing Riches

Last night I finally had a chance to watch the season premier of Little People, Big World, albeit only two days late.  Like many others watching the show I was deeply moved by the bleak outlook for the three Iraqi kids if they didn’t receive medical attention.  But what impacted me the most was the depth of the human spirit to find joy in even the worst of conditions.

Here was a family with practically nothing, surviving as best they can in a war zone with little in the way of possessions to their name.  Mom and dad, scarred and slightly paralyzed from being a soldier in the 1980s, were like any parents – worried about the future of their children without a way to help them.  And five children, three with a potentially fatal form of dwarfism.  The eldest’s dwarfism had already reached serious stages of degeneration and her younger brother is showing the same symptoms as his sister.

And yet the three kids who had the most to complain about had the biggest smiles and widest hearts of most anyone I’ve ever seen.  Mom was interested in this new stranger’s family and dad just wanted to take care of his family.  With little food for themselves they offered up watermelon to serve their entourage of guests (Matt, camera crew, military escorts, etc).

This family understood, perhaps without understanding, what many of us seek to find.  They lived the abundance of the heart and willingly shared their abundance with others.  And through that they have changed the lives of many more strangers who don’t feel much like strangers in their hearts today.