Love Your Rubbery Tapa: A Lesson from Jocelyn and Mary

This morning, my concern was to just fill my already stinging stomach.

“Never allow yourself to go hungry.” My doctor always nagged me against going without food as a precaution to ward off migraine, my sort of thorn-in-the-flesh adversary.

And having come from a blood extraction (for annual physical exam) which required an overnight fast, my mind really just focused on food to prevent the onset of migraine.

Nearest stop: McDonald’s Alabang Town Center. But the parking lot was so full, I just had to drive on. “Food, I need to have food.” My head started to ache.

Then I made a wrong turn and found myself in BF’s Tropical Hut Hamburger.

Anyway, breakfast at last! The coffee was good but I wasn’t happy at all with my rubbery tapa.

I sat near a table where a mother cuddled her baby. Starting a conversation with her, I pretty soon discovered her “baby” was already a 14-year old girl, curled up like an overgrown fetus.

Mary suffered from cerebral palsy so she leaned on her mother Jocelyn like a spineless infant. Jocelyn said she was waiting for her other daughter so they could go home to their shanty somewhere in Sucat.

“Nabenta po lahat ng tinda kong sabon (All of my detergent products have been sold.),” she gladly related, pointing to her empty bag; implying too that she’d finished her snack, when I offered to order her one.

Jocelyn added that she and her brothers and sisters played musical instruments. She was adept with the guitar and even performed with a show band when she was younger.

Her only dream was to provide Mary the best care and have her other daughter finish college.

Before we parted, Jocelyn and I prayed—for Mary and for God’s grace to abound in her life and her family. I even invited her to church.

My slowly percolating headache was gone, replaced with joy for having met Jocelyn and Mary.

Yet I felt ashamed. Being so focused on my gut and my pain, I almost lost sight of what mattered.

So what if once in a while our head aches, or the beef is rubbery, or that our wallet just has a few cents left.

I pray these fleeting concerns won’t consume us to the point that we get immune to those who hurt around us. God allowed me a detour this morning to let me peek into my heart.

Moses prayed (Psalm 90:12), “Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” May His wisdom allow us to be sensitive to others, as well as teach us to value every little blessing.