The World According to Shiloh
It is a glorious gift to see parts of the world foreign to your own. The gift of Rwanda—both the similarities and wild differences between here and our comfort in the States—is something we are trying to not take for granted. It’s so new and it’s so beautiful. The One who created this land is the same One who created ours, and the mystery of God’s creativity is truly astounding. Trying to grasp the fullness of life here is a worthy, but admittedly difficult task. But perhaps it’s from the little ones that we learn the most.
The Webers are a missionary family sent from Redeemer in the early spring of 2023. They have 5 kids at home (with one at a boarding school in Kenya and one back at home in Greensboro). Their youngest, Shiloh (6), is an absolute joy. She’s cute, and she knows it, and the joy of the Lord is her strength. She’s lived a third of her life as a missionary kid in Rwanda and only has faint memories of life back home. By “back home” I mean North Carolina, but it’s clear her home is now here.
She might not know the language, but she knows the people. She knows the land. She knows the beauty, and she knows the God who’s here. When doing evening prayer with the Webers, she asked if we could sing. Her suggestion: The Lord is my Shepherd. A classic, especially for the children and those who love them at Redeemer. After we sang the Doxology, she squealed, “Again!” We gave in and let her choose a third song: Jesus Loves the Little Children. She led all three stanzas, and we happily followed.
She wants to dance and she wants to sing, she wants to run around and incessantly ask us to spin her. “I’m young!” she reminds us, as if we could have forgotten. When driving to another parish, with her head out the window taking in the fresh air, she so wonderfully proclaimed what we’ve been thinking this whole time, “Isn’t this so amazing?!” She’s been here for 2 years, this is the life she knows, and yet she doesn’t grow blind to the beauty that’s here.
When drawing on a piece of cardboard (you make use with what you have on a bus), she added the ground, sky, sun, flowers, and rain. The only thing missing? Jesus himself. “Let’s add Jesus!” shortly followed by “I don’t really know how to draw Jesus.” (Get this girl into icon writing asap.)
The world according to Shiloh is a beautiful wonder. I’m starting to think we have a lot to learn from the 6 year olds among us, at home and abroad. Perhaps this is what God meant when he said “let the little children come to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”