I walk through the pothole ridden streets to the street market in Granada. Several streets as well as an indoor city block are filled with vendors selling every kind of fruit and vegetable as well as ajax, wristwatches, and slingshots. Dogs scramble around at my feet and the meat section sports several ripe pig heads. Good for soup I guess.
Today I am looking for my love, aguacate. The small green fruit known as the avocado. Many times I can buy four of them for a little over a dollar. My life is good.
But today there are none to be found. I scour the aisles of squashes, melons, and beets. My green amor is nowhere to be seen. I have learned a very valuable lesson about the produce market; for everything there is a season. Sometimes the market is glutted with jocote, while other times it is bags of nancite. Mamon’s made a brief tour recently. At their peak there were so many that they were almost given away. Now there are almost none.
Our lives are always changing. Through the uncertainty and shifting environment of this life, God is teaching us to embrace what is before us and give thanks. If my heart is set on avocado and it is not to be found, I will learn to appreciate yucca with all my heart.
Ministry here in Nicaragua changes all the time. Sometimes I find myself traveling to the next county to translate for a team, other times I am slowly walking behind the hearse of my buddy’s uncle. Sometimes I am going door to door praying for people, other times I am sharing the word with prisoners. Sometimes I am serving others, other times I am being served. Sometimes I am offering advice, crying with and praying for people, other times I am being built up, encouraged, and instructed.
Every day is a gift filled with opportunities that cannot be reclaimed. Many times we do not realize what is right in front of us because our hearts are set on some other place or some other time. Jesus calls us to embrace the vegetables, blessings, trials, and people he has thrown in our path.
