What the Ugly Camel Taught Me

    Let me ask you a question.  What do you see here?

     Ok - that's fine - take your time to quit laughing.  :-)  No, this is not a trick question.  I'll tell you what I see here.  I see one really, really ugly camel.  He had to have been older than my grandmother's mother.  

     Not sure why, but his lip was dangling like that the whole time.  Nerve damage to the lower lip maybe?  Not sure....  Poor thing was in a pen by himself right across from the younger and better looking camels (which we walked over to see first).  We were at a touristy thing that had lots of exotic species of animals that you could walk around and look at.  When we saw the camels from a distance and made our way over, I have to say this was not what we expected to find.  We were all taken aback.  Well, almost all of us were....

     

     My sweet daughter took a liking to him.  I'm not sure how my daughter, who is usually quite grossed out by weird things, overcame her aversion to the strange, but she did.  And you know what?  This camel adored her back.  He loved all of the attention she gave him.  He ended up being the friendliest animal there.  The poor thing probably never got attention at all, until my sweet daughter taught us all a lesson in charity.  She made a friend for life!  

      In the end, it guess it was really more my daughter who taught me a lesson that day and not the camel, but he was the instrument that God used to teach it.  Yes, I find this as indisputable proof that God most definitely has a sense of humor!
     This past week, I was in the process of organizing the (literal) thousands of pictures that I have on the hard drive of my computer, and I came across these.  This got me thinking about things, and that poor old ugly camel taught me another lesson.  This lesson was a bit more important.
     In our society, animals have a soft place in most people's hearts.  I'm sure that our family, upon further consideration of the ugly camel, would not be the only one to start feeling sorry for him and want to befriend him.  Something about animals inspires a sense of the protective nature that makes you want to shield them from anything that would harm them or make them "sad" (in the sense that an animal can experience an emotion).  Why is it, though, harder for us to feel that same way about other humans?
     How many people do you know that are ugly or annoying or hard to get along with?  How many are mean or lacking in social skills?  How many are beautiful on the outside, but harder to like on the inside?  The thing is, everyone of us - every last one from the moment of conception to the end of the life - is made in the image of God.  That means everyone is beautiful in their own way and deserves a bit of respect - dignity and love.  They deserve to be shown charity.  Now, I'm not talking about the condescending charity that one shows - the kind that is more of a way to feel good about oneself rather than making life better for the person on the receiving end.  That is more about pride and showing off rather than about charity.  I'm talking about the kind of charity - the kind of love and sacrifice - that we would want to be shown.
     I'm not trying to sound like I am preaching.  I am most definitely guilty of being uncharitable myself.  There are people in this world that I do not get along with - people that I really can't stand.  I have been guilty of looking down on others or being judgmental as well.  I have no right to be that way.
     Blessed Mother Teresa used to say that it was Christ that she was taking care of when she would help the destitute and sick.  He was there in every single one of those people.  Didn't He say that whatsoever you do to the least of His people, you do unto Him?  That means that every single person in this world that we come in contact with is an opportunity to do something for Jesus.  Stop and think about it.  This is mind blowing.  Everyone - from the worker at the drive through to your boss that you can't stand to your children and spouses - your mother, the homeless man begging when you stop at a red light - everyone!  This means that we are called to show charity to every single person we come in contact with.
     Of course we are called to love the people around us in different ways.  Our children need one kind of love, our spouses another, the check-out lady at the grocery store another.  We are, however, called to show charity to all of them.  We are even called to be charitable - show some type of love - to those who have been hateful or mean to us or have wronged us in some form or fashion.  It really doesn't matter how they react to that charity - what they do with our love is between them and God.  What matters to us is that the love we show the people around us is really us showing that love to Christ Himself.  Jesus doesn't expect us to put ourselves in a place where we are in danger or setting ourselves up to be hurt by someone we know would hurt us.  He does, however, expect us to be charitable to all in some form or fashion - even if that means praying for someone from a distance or even offering up sacrifices for them.  I had a very wise spiritual director once tell me to offer up daily sacrifices for someone who had been mean to me.  He was so wise to tell me to do that - it really helped.  It was very hard for me to do that, and it still is.  It helps me, though, to think about the fact that I am giving that to Jesus.  As He hung there on the cross, dying for our sins, He (since He is God and knows all) knew that today I would make that sacrifice and offer it up, even though it was hard for me, in order to please Him.  That is my spiritual present that I give to Him to help, in some very small way, ease the suffering that He had to go through for us.
     Charity is something that we all struggle with.  I know I do quite often.  I don't struggle so much with my family or close friends - it is more the others that I struggle being charitable towards.  It is so hard to be charitable to the people in my path who are rude to me - those who are annoying or even those who have been down right mean and hurt me in some way or another.  I hope and pray that as the opportunities present themselves, I can remember that every charitable act that I make - every time I show some type of love - I am really doing that for Christ.  I would like to think that if I lived during the time of Christ and had stood there in the crowds watching Jesus carry His cross I would have been more like St. Veronica who wiped the spit, blood, and sweat from His precious Face and not like all the others who were mocking Him and spit on Him.  I guess that really, even though I don't live in that time period, I am still standing on that road leading to Calvary, and every opportunity I am given to show charity is an opportunity to follow the example of St. Veronica and comfort Jesus.  I pray that my Guardian Angel will whisper this reminder in my ear the next time I am having difficulty showing the charity I am called to show.  

    
     This is another picture I found from that day.  My silly husband was antagonizing that ostrich, and boy was that ostrich getting mad!  I'm not sure how I could turn that into a spiritual lesson I could learn, but it sure was funny!!!  :-)