BEADS IN THE BAG

Missionary, Heidi Baker tells the best stories of how God shows up in her life.  Last week in Washington’s Crossing, PA she decided to share the “beads in the bag” story.  “This is not a story I tell very often,” she said. “But I feel I am supposed to share it with you tonight.”

The story goes that a visiting doctor was serving with her in Mozambique one Christmas. She and her team had invited everyone to a Christmas party, and I mean everyone.  She invited all the children of her village, of course.  But she also invited the addicts, the alcoholics, the prostitutes, the poor, the destitute, anyone who would come.  She handed out gifts to every one of them, even the ones who had been harassing the young men in training on her team.  Then there was one group of young girls left awaiting their gifts.  Heidi heard that the girls wanted beads, so she whispered to the doctor assisting her, “The girls wants beads.” 

Heidi told how the doctor looked at her as if she was crazy.  She and Heidi both knew that the only gifts left in the big black garbage bags were stuffed dogs, used stuffed dogs.  “The girls wants beads”, Heidi repeated to the doctor, several times and then she waited.  Suddenly the doctor screamed.  “There’s beads in the bag, beads in the bag, beads in the bag,” she chanted.  Heidi and the doctor distributed God’s beads to some very happy girls that Christmas Day.

I know lots of people, myself included, who need or want something very badly.  Maybe it’s a dream of what you always wanted to be when you grew up, but you’re stuck in a dead end job just to pay the bills.  Maybe it’s a relationship that you are longing for.  Maybe it’s a roof over your head and food on the table, healing from an incurable disease, relief from depression, or escape from addiction.  But you know there’s only old stuffed dogs in your bag.  Or maybe not.  Maybe God is really big enough and good enough to open his hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.(Ps. 145:16)  So I take Heidi’s story and say, “Do it again, God!”  Turn those old stuffed dogs into shelter for the homeless, mortgage money and jobs for the folks out of work, family for the lonely ones, lifting of depression, release from addiction, or even beads for a group of little girls who just want to feel pretty and special.