HUNGER…Have you ever experienced real hunger? I’m not talking about hunger that comes because you haven’t eaten in 4 hours and the little twinge of pain you feel in your gut. I’m talking about real hunger…a nagging emptiness that has received no satisfaction for a week…a craving and urgent need for food…a longing for nourishment, strength, rest, and peace? Have you ever been so hungry that one tiny piece of bird seed or one kernel of corn would bring you to your knees to pick it up and protect it like your most prized possession?
I have never been that hungry…I have never experienced that kind of value in a grain of millet, a kernel of corn, or a single peanut. I cannot even begin to fathom the kind of hunger that causes a 2 year old child to see some millet seed spilled on the ground and bend down to pick it up cradling each grain in his tiny hand as if it were a piece of gold.
I cannot comprehend how much one kernel of corn must mean to a grown man who has had no food for his family and how the sight of a fallen kernel would bring him to his knees to salvage each one. No words describe the sight of a group of young boys scrounging around the ground scooping up every seed of grain, sifting out the dirt, and putting it in a bucket to take home to his mom.
These are the pictures that fill my mind when I hear the word hunger. These are the images burned into my s0ul when the word famine is spoken. These faces are the ones I will forever see as I read the words of J.s.s in Matthew 25:35-36, “For I was hungry , and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.”