Daily Devotional for November 26, 2021
Moving Eyebrows
Kaden nudged his sister. “I wonder why Uncle Kurt moves his eyebrows up and down while he’s talking,” he whispered as their uncle answered a question Dad had asked. “He looks funny!” Ella just shrugged.
After a moment, Kaden ventured a question of his own. “Are you glad to be back from the mission field, Uncle Kurt?”
Uncle Kurt looked right at Kaden and raised his eyebrows a few times as he spoke. “It’s good to be back, but we miss the people we’ve been working with and the small church we started.”
After dinner, Kaden and Ella cleared the table while the grown-ups talked. “Ask Uncle Kurt why he moves his eyebrows up and down when he answers questions,” Kaden urged his sister.
“It could just be a nervous habit,” said Ella. “Though I noticed Aunt Meg does it sometimes too. Why don’t you ask about it?”
“Maybe I will.”
After dinner, Kaden finally asked the question. “Uncle Kurt, why do you raise your eyebrows when you talk?”
Uncle Kurt laughed out loud. “Have I been doing that? That’s one way the people say yes in the village where we work. Now I do it without thinking.”
“When missionaries go to another country, they often have to learn new gestures as well as a new language,” Aunt Meg explained. “At first, many things the people did seemed strange to us, but we expected that. After all, we were in their country, and we certainly couldn’t expect them to do things our way.”
Uncle Kurt nodded. “We remembered the Bible verse where Paul says he adjusted to the people he worked with in order to spread the gospel. We knew we had to do that too so the people in our village could hear about Jesus.”
“That’s something all Christians can do—not just missionaries,” Mom said. “When we’re open to learning about others who do things differently from us and are willing to be their friend—even if it takes some adjustment—we can share Jesus with them too.”
Aunt Meg nodded. “We love the people where we live, and we’re trusting Jesus to help us develop meaningful relationships with them.”
-Jorlyn A. Grasser
How about you?
Do you know any missionaries? When they move to a foreign country, they need to become familiar with different languages, gestures, food, and customs. They’re willing to make those adjustments because they want to tell people about Jesus. Even if you’re not a missionary in a foreign country, you can do the same thing where you live. Be willing to put your own preferences aside so you can develop friendships with those who are different from you.
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