Transformed by an orphan

We got this in an email today from Dennis Raineys ministry about orphans, I thought I would share it below:


At the orphanage, Karen tried to reach the somber little boy with a new toy, then another…and then candy, but nothing could penetrate his pain, nothing could make him smile. Then she saw his hands…little hands scarred from repeated burning.
Overwhelmed with emotion, she stole away to the van to quietly face her own pain at what she had seen. This is how she describes what happened next:
“I looked up and there was the boy with a missing smile . . . He extended his hands to me, his burned brown hands. I took my wipe and cleaned each of his precious palms . . . the language barrier crumbled as I was just a mom caring for a boy’s hand the way they should be cared for. It wasn’t the shoes, or the toy or candy . . . it was a simple act of love, and the boy who lost his smile, found it. He hugged me tight and called me Amiga . . . friend. The smile he gave me was more precious than any gift I had offered him . . . I had been transformed by an orphan; I was conquered by a smile.”