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Greatest Gift of All
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It’s 1 am, and I still can’t sleep because I can’t stop thinking about a certain gift I received this morning. It was truly the greatest gift of all.
The tag didn’t read “From: Mom”, or “From: Dad”; it simply read “From: Maria”. I stared at it in awe, asking “Really?” over and over, each time expressing a different emotion: first confusion, followed by inquisitiveness, followed by anticipation and a sense of joy. Maria, probably only three or so years my younger, is one of the girls at the Zau orphanage in Romania…one of the ones I particularly clicked with on our trip this summer. On our last day in Romania, when everyone was saying their teary-eyed goodbyes to all the children, I remember her embracing me in a warm hug and calling me her “brother”.
In the time between the end of the trip and now, I’ve often worried that these kids say things like that simply because they think that it’s what we want to hear; if they don’t act appreciative, that we wouldn’t come back. I also worried that once we left, they would merely forget our individual faces and personalities and simply forget us in a sea of other missionaries and social workers. All those worries would melt away when I opened the gift.
It was a photograph of the two of us, framed in a frame that only a teenage girl would have. I was told that she had kept it, and had given it to Dad on his most recent trip in early December to give to me. Not only had she remembered me, and not only had I left such an impression on her that she framed a picture of the two of us, but she also wanted me to know that she had remembered me. I tear up just writing that.
All I know now is that no matter where my travels take me, that photo will sit in a place of honor in my home. There’s no way I can repay the favor, but I’ll try my best. I’ve had people wonder why I want to make mission work my life’s work…after an experience like that, I can’t think of a better reason.
- Jared Oloffson