Diamonds
Devon has never been out to eat – aside from McDonalds. His new tutor has been investing in Devon and his little brother and decided to spend the evening with them – movie, popcorn and huge slices of pizza. The boys talked about it for days.
That night Devon told his tutor that he had never been to a movie. His little brother interrupted and tried to correct him, reminding Devon of the time they sat on the roof of a car and watched a movie.
In fact they were parked far outside of a drive-in and were trying to watch the soundless film from an adjacent parking lot.
It’s different here. Like you cross a couple intersections and suddenly you’re in a foreign country.
We have kids that rarely leave their zip code – if ever. They’re all born at the local hospital on the corner of 6th Avenue and have lived the next decade of their lives confined to a few city blocks.
True – at points it feels stilted and impoverished, but if you look a little closer you see neighbors who talk and big brothers who watch over little brothers; cousins who make sure little sisters get fed and kids who form families with the people who lived jammed in an overcrowded city block.
Give and take, ups and downs – a lot of coal but more than a few diamonds.
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Rev. Amy Beth "A.B." Augustin Barlow
The Third Story, Inc.
(All names and identifying details have been changed to protect anonymity. All pictures are randomly chosen from our ministry and do not reflect the actual individuals in the story.)