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Mom visited me

Bob Buxman

Mom is 83, a Mennonite, and quite conservative. I’m 53. We have a special relationship. I know this because she came to visit me.

Big deal? But I live in Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Americas, with more guns and slums per capita than almost anyplace. Retired folks don’t talk about Nicaragua as the place “you’ve just got to go” on your next vacation. Besides, my mom is not a big traveller.

But she came to visit me in Nicaragua. She ate food sold by a street vendor: deep-fried, golden brown mashed yucca scoops placed in a banana leaf with honey poured over them, offered by a smiling 12-year-old girl. She rode in a horse-drawn cart. She ate in the homes of poor country people. She smiled, laughed and wished she spoke Spanish. Perturbed at the poverty and deeply troubled by the injustices she was seeing, my mother started asking hard questions. She did lots of things foreign to her California culture. Best of all, she arrived carrying only a bag a little larger than a purse – and stayed a week!

This seemingly insignificant event might not mean much to some, but it is significant to me. My mom came to Nicaragua to visit me because she loves me.

As I thought about Mom’s visit, I realized it was not unlike Christ coming to earth. Compared to what He left, earth was no paradise. And it was not like many people cared one way or the other whether He came or not. He got in with the people, ate their food, rode donkeys and laughed with families. He noticed the children. He travelled light. He experienced love, anger, frustrations, hunger, betrayal, beatings, acceptance, rejection, exhaustion, laughter, hope, disappointment, contentment, prayer and moms.

Jesus’ visit might not mean much to some, but it is significant to us. Our Lord came to earth because He loved us.

Bob Buxman and his wife Barb direct Mennonite Central Committee US West Coast programs. This article was distributed Oct. 6, 1998 as a MCC news release when they were MCC country representatives in Nicaragua.

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Last modified December 6, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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