Turtle Brains and Daily Delicacies

Turtle Brains and Daily Delicacies

WARNING: If you have a tendency to get a weak stomach over “edible” items that are a little out of the ordinary, you might want to pass up reading the first part of this blog.  

At 11:00am, *Maria came to my door with a huge grin on her face.  Something was up.  “Will you come eat lunch with us?”  was her request; but her face said so much more.  

Hmm... I saw something unique cooking over a large fire earlier in the day. I enthusiastically accepted her offer and silently lifted up the famous missionary prayer: “Lord, I’ll get it down if You’ll keep it down.”

*Maria, Nicco (my pet monkey), and I entered the house and on the floor were seated 8 of *Maria’s family members.  (Note: In the Amazonian community where I live, we eat all of our meals seated on the floor.)  They praised me for joining them and then sat me at the place of honor.  UH, OHHH!!!  I was the GUEST OF HONOR at this meal!  Which means… the delicacies would be given to ME!!!

On my plate, they placed A GIANT TURTLE HEAD!  Then, nine pairs of eyes fell on me.  As I looked around the circle, I saw in their eyes the most generous, beautiful, sacrificial looks.  My heart melted.  Nine people in that room would have LOVED to have had what was on my plate.  Turtle head is a delicacy here in this part of the Amazon, and this family was honoring me by giving it to me.

With a curious, tilted-head look from Nicco and another (more desperate) silent prayer, I turned to *Maria and said, “*Maria, I’ve never had such an honor given to me before.  This is my first turtle head. Would you please show me where to begin?”  
-“With the eyes!” was her quick, smiling, turtle-head-eating-expert, reply. 

I clung to the first part of Ephesians 6:18 like never before: “Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”  Oh, believe me, all kinds of prayers and requests were going up, especially as she said next, “Now, break the scull like this and eat the brains.”  Eyes, brains, and then the tongue.  Where was this chapter in the “Jungle Survival Training Manual”?  Did I sleep through this class?

It was an unforgettable meal, for many reasons, but principally because of the looks in the eyes of those around me when that huge head was put on my plate.  This family didn’t have to invite me (the foreigner) to come to their special meal.  They could have shared that head among themselves. Yet, in order to thank me and honor me, they wanted to give me their very best – and they did that by giving me the one delicacy that they had.

They have so little here, yet, whenever they do have something special, they don’t horde it for themselves – rather, they seek to generously honor someone else with it.

How many delicacies do we, as Americans, receive on monthly, weekly, and even daily basis that we only use only for ourselves?  A delicacy can be anything from a small monetary gift, to a Krispy Kreme donut for breakfast, or a few unexpected hours off of work.   What do we do with delicacies that come our way?  

Philippians 2:3-4 reminds us to consider others better than ourselves and to not look to our own interests but to the interests of others.

STAND OUT today and honor someone else with something God has blessed you with!

*Names have been changed in order to honor security regulations.