Who Has the Greater Need?

Our two daughters are involved in an after school activity. Occasionally, the activity requires the group of kids to either eat dinner at the school, or to pick up something later that evening. In both cases, the students contribute to the meal cost.

My wife was talking to one of the other parents about planning the meal. The parent was discussing one of the students. She said they never ask for money for the meal from this child. And when the activity requires the student to buy something later, someone makes sure he has something to eat.

The reason is that this child never has any money to contribute to the meals.  The parent told my wife that they think that sometimes the only meal the child eats is the lunch he receives at school.

This is one of those things that we personally don’t see very often - a child dealing with hunger - an “In our faces” issue, right here at home. We didn’t have to go to Africa on a mission trip to see it. We only had to participate in an after school activity with our own children.

The question now is what, if anything, can we do. How can we get involved in the life of this child?  Never in my entire life have I nor my immediate family lacked something to eat.

The other question here is "Who has the greater need?" This child may need food. Our family needs an appreciation for that which we take for granted every single day. And in His great wisdom, He has brought this child and our family together, if for nothing else but for us to witness each other’s lives. And that answers that first question: we are involved in this child's life.

This is one of the reasons we have our children in public school. This is where we believe our family has been called.