Olga has a limp … An obvious defect that has plagued her all her days. She can’t run and play with the other children, she just watches wishing she too could join them. When Laura injures her ankle at Nellie’s birthday party, her and Olga become friends.
Olga has this grace and peace about her … It’s remarkable. She has only kind words to speak about everyone and she is extremely insightful. Her thoughts are compassionate and deep, even Mary doesn’t quite understand when Olga calls Nellie poor. I love her response, “Nellie is poor for she has no happiness inside. You know what’s inside a person by the face they wear.”
She has a point, Nellie is usually scowling. But then I think about it and sometimes my face doesn’t reveal what I’d like it to. I let circumstances and fatigue shine through more than I’d like to admit. A happy heart … a joyful heart, how do we get it back when the hard things of life have grabbed and taken it? Â How do we begin living again not fearful, how do we get out of the habit of protecting ourselves?
For Olga, she had truly accepted her life … Short leg and all. That doesn’t mean she didn’t dream of running and playing but she was at peace with her condition.  If we all could get to this place of contentment then I think our hearts would be full and it would spill over into our faces. In Proverbs 27:19 it says “As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.”
Lately my deepest desire is to have a heart content with what the Lord has for me today, for joy to come spilling out of me. Â I am being patient with myself, knowing that the joy will come as I am grateful for all the things I’ve endured this past year … For I know that for those who love God all things work together for good! Â – Romans 8:28
Too often I focus on the problem, when what I really need to shift my eyes to is the One who holds it all together …He has our hearts in his hands. Laura said it best, “The heart is more important than a leg.”
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