From Pain to Praise

She pulled up a three legged stool, but it's not what you might initially picture. It's only about twelve inches high and it's made out of local wood, smoothed from many years of use. Her aged knees bent deeply until she lowered herself onto the stool, and she propped up her foot and began to unwind the bandage. She exposed a raw, but clean wound that was healing around the edges. She was bit by a snake a little over a month ago that left her with a significant crater-like wound that covers almost the entire top surface of her foot. Daniel, an African nurse, has been coming to her house every three days to change the dressing. The gaping hole has now become a healthy wound bed that is steadily healing. 

As he worked, she talked and laughed. She was truly delightful, joyful, and unbelievably thankful. If that had been my wound, I would have been crying and complaining. Probably totally discouraged, even angry. But she seemed to be just the opposite. Listening to her story helped me understand why, yet is also magnified my amazement. 

It's hard being a widow anywhere in the world, but especially in Burkina Faso. A woman's value is tied to her husband, and when she marries, she often physically moves into his family. He builds a house for her and they live there amidst his extended family. If he dies, she no longer has value in the eyes of her deceased husband's family (in fact they often accuse her of being cursed), but she often can't return to her own family because she has no house there for her and her children. So she is physically stuck in a house among an extended family that doesn't want her. And she has to provide for her and her children entirely on her own. 

This was the case with his woman. Anytime she asked for help from her deceased husband's family, they refused her. Even when she was sick and needed support, they ignored her. This year, they took her best field and wouldn't let her plant in it. She is truly alone, rejected by her husband's family, and when she asks for help no one responds. 

When she was bitten by the snake, she lost all hope. But from simple medical care - like biweekly dressing changes done with compassion and care, she sees that she is loved by God. "He sees me and watches over me," she says with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face, even as Daniel poured solution over the wound and cleaned it rigorously...all without any pain medication. 

Right there, on a dirt floor in a house in the middle of a corn field, I met a woman of great faith that challenges me to examine my own. She knows suffering, and yet she rejoices wholeheartedly in the simple knowledge that Jesus loves her, sees her, cares for her, and responds to her needs when no one else does. I don't know about you, but I want to be more like that.