The Curious Observer

Are you a curious observer? The person sitting on the bench at Disneyland watching people stream through the round at the end of Main Street or perhaps you sit with your book poised to read while waiting for your delayed flight, more intrigued by the passersby than the who done it resting in your lap. I am a curious observer. I took this picture of these kids to remind me that I am not the only curious observer in the space where I live. 

We had just started an informal soccer match with some school kids in a rural village in Central Kenya. So many kids were playing, and laughing, it was really fun.  Being a curious observer, I went for a walk around the school yard to see what I could see. As I turned the corner around one of the school buildings I saw these kids, curiously observing the mzungus playing soccer with their school mates. These kids were not casual observers, they were actively assessing the game, the play, the people. I watched them point, laugh, and shuffle positions on the wall as if anticipating a personal invitation to enter the pitch and play. It didn’t take long for one of our team (a mzungu) to personally invite them to come and run in the soccer game with him. All it took was, “hey, I need you to come run with me” and the wall was cleared six more kids entered the game – laughing and chasing my friend. 

A simple invitation to participate in something that connected two cultures, two languages, unfamiliar with each other. These six kids in this picture will remember the day the mzungu came to play, because he stopped to invite them into his life; to run with him. The ensuing joy was mutual. 

God has placed people around your life who are curiously observing. I hope this picture encourages you to stop for just a minute and invite them to step off the wall and into your life, they may just be waiting for a personal invitation to run with you. You are not responsible for their response, just the invitation. BTW, the invitation is where the Great Commission begins!  ~ Dennis Shillingburg

“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. Luke 15:4-7