The day before I came to Washington DC, I decided to watch Beauty and the Beast. It's a classic, and I hadn't watched it in years. I figured I was due for another viewing of this Disney fairytale. Not much has changed since the last time I watched this movie. I was just as fascinated, and I still sang along to all the words :)
When my Dad came home, I told him that Disney hit a home run with Beauty and the Beast. He patiently explained that he has been trying to tell me that for years. He also told me that when I was growing up, I reminded him of Belle. He said that it had to do with my obsession with reading, just like Belle. With friends, I always stayed a little bit on the 'outside' because, that's where I'm comfortable. My thoughts after that comment were, "If I'm Belle...then where's my beast?"
Yesterday, my group served at a ministry site called Thrive DC. Thrive typically feeds around 150 people breakfast every morning. My job to help them prepare for yesterday was to put the cherries, that are in the picture, into 150 bowls. Let me just say, these cherries were legit. They were fresh picked from a local farm and they had been donated to Thrive. They still had the leaves attached to some of their stems, and they were delicious. As people began to come up and take their cherries, I realized that I would not have wanted to serve these cherries to anyone else. Most of the people I was serving put the biggest smile on my face. They were warm, funny and engaging. They made me so happy, and could not thank us enough for the food they were being given for breakfast.
As I was putting the cherries together, I realized that I had found 'my beast.' In the movie, the beast is a bit cliche. When Belle begins to love on the Beast, his response is kindness. At first, he doesn't know how to treat her because he is unaccustomed to her attitude. But, as she perseveres, he responds by giving to her as well.
When my thoughts after I had watched the movie were, 'where's my beast?' I had been thinking about a boy. Yesterday, it was so cool to see that God had my 'beast' be a group of people that were better than a guy. The people that I encountered at Thrive did not always know how to react to our love. They sometimes responded with bitterness, or anger. But, as my group and I persevered, their attitudes slowly changed. They transformed from people that were homeless and bitter to a group of welcoming, and funny people. The only change was that instead of treating them rudely, we loved them. By the time a lot of them were leaving, they came over to our group and said that they hoped they would be seeing us again.
This whole experience was so exciting. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the fact that for right now, the people that I get to love are the people who attend our ministry sites. They make my days worth it. I love them with an unconditional love that I can't explain, and I'm so glad that I have been lucky enough to be able to get to know them. They may seem to be 'my beast' at first, but the more time I spend with them, the more beautiful they become :)
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