Last Sunday, the preacher in my church was talking about ‘sonship’ and the privileges that come with being a child of ‘so and so’. He was speaking in reference to the relationship between man and God but it’s his earthly examples that got me thinking, especially when he asked the congregation whether given a chance any of them would choose to be born in their current families. To break the silence that followed his question, the preacher said he suspected that given the chance, some of the members would want to be born in families with ‘big names’. Silently, I started thinking of some big names like Bill Gates or Richard Branson, and at that moment realised that much as I admire these people, and at times even envy them, I would never wish to be born in those families. My answer to the pastor’s question, though rhetorical, is that I would still choose to be born into the Lumbasi family.

I say so because the wisdom of age has taught me that life is not all about material things. It is not about what people put out there for us to see. It is about what is not shown in public, that which goes on behind the four walls (or more than 100 walls for those with big names). A good friend of mine always thanks God for the person that invented clothes based on the fact that they cover a lot of stuff. He says that for most people, pieces of clothing such as vests, ties or bras hold things together in place but when they’re taken off ‘things fall apart’. While he usually says this as a joke, the statement is valid when applied in real life contexts because there are people we look at and admire for they seem to have everything sorted from the outside. The reality for many is far from that; on the inside it is uncertainty, frustrations and pain. If they allowed you to walk in their shoes for even 24 hours you would beg to go back to your life.

The moral of today’s article is to encourage each one of us to appreciate and make the most of what we have. Nothing comes our way that we cannot handle, we each have our different journeys cut out and we should not try to run other people’s races. As the sermon came to an end, it became even much clearer to me that if there was a second, third or fifth time to be born again, I would still want to be born in my family. This is the family I cherish, the one that accepts me just as I am, the one I know how to party and cry with. Together we appreciate the fact that life is not about your name; it is about dignity, character and value which differs from one person to the other and one family to the next. As you go about your day today, maybe you should also try to answer my pastor’s question and for your family’s sake, I hope you would still choose them and they would choose you.

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